The Great Lunar Cycle: The Horse Twins and the Grail
[A glossary of relevant names and charts of parallels appear at the end of this article.]
The Aesir-Vanir War and the Holy Grail
The Aesir-Vanir War's place in comparative mythology has perplexed and misled interpreters for a long time now, not least because it is somewhat unclear if there is an exact example of the same motif in any other branches. Some point to the Deva-Asura conflict of the Vedic religion, but this can be shown to have at its root an internecine dispute possibly stemming from the time of Indo-Iranic unity, out of which arose, over time, the demonization of the favorite gods of the Iranics by the Vedics as “asuras” and the demonization of the favorite gods of the Vedics by the Iranics as “devas.” The division between the Asuras and Devas fails to match the division between the groups of gods who make war in the Norse myth. These are not the same groups of gods coming in conflict. To greatly simplify the matter: in the Deva-Asura war, Indra the Deva and his faction make enemies of Varuna and Mitra and theirs. That is, at bottom we have one of the second function warrior caste gods (Indra) set against the gods of the first function, the priestly-sovereigns (Varuna and Mitra), or simply against the demonic forces if Varuna and Mitra are sometimes excluded.
In the Norse case, on the other hand, we can see right away that the second function thunder and warrior god, Thor, is fully united with the celestial gods of the first function, the gods of magical and juridical rulership (Óðinn, Baldr, Tyr) and does not oppose them. The Aesir-Vanir war, instead, seems to be a conflict between these allied first and second function gods with another set – Freyr, Njörðr, etc. – who are repeatedly associated with marriage, generation, wealth, and the fertility of the sea or land. That is, the group that the first and second function gods face off with are primarily third function gods.
As such, in the course of this series we will demonstrate, and others have theorized before us, that Freyr is one of the “Horse Twin” gods, those gods who have been called the “quintessential gods of the third function” by the philologist Georges Dumezil. Freyr's father Njörðr, too, who takes part in the war, has sometimes been connected to this twin pair of gods, as Dumezil himself has done. However, due to the fact that Njörðr is Freyr's father rather than his brother, this has been a difficult identification to solidify, to say the least. Others attempting to pin down Njörðr's identity have pointed to the fact that the goddess known as Nerþus may have had a Mother Earth role, and the similarly named Njörðr may have derived from her milieu in some way and thus would be a connected sort of deity. Whatever the case, Njörðr is believed to govern the plentifulness of the sea, and perhaps of the land as well, an thus he, like Freyr, seems to be a quintessential third function god, and is himself tied closely to the Horse Twin mythos as the father of the proposed Horse Twin, Freyr.
If we designate only Freyr as a Horse Twin, then, a war between the third function Horse Twin (along with other allied gods) and the first and second function gods, is what we would hope to find a parallel for in the other mythological branches. Third function vs. a coalition of First function and Second function. And yet this exact arrangement is, on first glance, hard to identify in other branches, and it begins to look as though this myth may have been unique to the Germanic branch. The Irish first and second function gods -- Nuada, Lugh, and the Dagda -- do indeed engage in war, yet they do not fight against the Horse Twin, Aengus, but against divinities of destruction, of the impersonal forces of nature and fate, while Aengus seems to be on the same side as the chief god Lugh during the great battles. In the Iliad, again the Horse Twin heroes Diomedes and Odysseus fight alongside the first and second function gods Agamemnon, Menelaus, Ajax and Achilles, against the Sun God Paris and the slaughterous Demon of the Last Age Hector. In the Mahabharata, the first and second function divinely incarnated heroes are brothers to and again fight alongside the Horse Twin incarnations (I refer here to the Pandava brothers). There is no war of the Dioskouri against Zeus as far as we know in Greek myth, though their fight against their cousins Idas and Lynceus could after all be a distant reflection of some part of the theme if it does not fulfill a different part of their myth.
Indeed nothing obvious comes into view in the form of a war with these particular combatants in any of the other branches -- except perhaps the Roman. As Georges Dumezil convincingly demonstrates, the Roman pseudo-historical episode known as the "Rape of the Sabine Women," is likely the same myth in another form (Archaic Roman Religion). Romulus here stands for the higher function gods, the first function magical sovereign comparable to Oðinn, while the Sabine king Titus Tatius stands for the third function gods. The Sabines have the women needed by the Romans for wives, which emblematizes the fact that the Sabines are the third function element related to fertility. The two sides do battle, the Sabines almost capture Rome, and the ultimate result is a stalemate and a compromise, in which the Sabines are integrated into Roman society, resulting at last in a fully well-rounded social picture: the first, second, and third functions in harmony; the priestly, warrior, and producer roles filled (See Dumezil, Archaic Roman Religion for a full discussion of this comparison). As such, this is a myth of the founding and perfecting of human society as much as it is a myth of the perfecting of divine society.
Beyond these, there is in one branch a single battle, if not a war, with a curious resemblance to the Norse example. This battle, more of a face-off, may after all provide the clue to uncovering the remnants of the "Aesir-Vanir War" motif in other branches, in mutated forms. For there is after all one key confrontation between the Vedic Horse Twins, the Asvins, and the warrior king of the gods, Indra, in the Vedic mythology, though it is easy to overlook in this connection, as the Horse Twins themselves don't actually take part in the fight. This confrontation proves, as we look into it further, to be the link between the Vedic Asvins and the Norse and Celtic Horse Twins, demonstrating the myth's widespread currency across the various Indo-European nations.
The story that results in this face-off is the story of the meeting of the Asvins and the sage Chyavana, the resulting marriage of Chyavana to the princess Sukanya, and the attempted wooing of Sukanya away from Chyavana by the Asvins. When we have recognized the pattern of this story, we will subsequently come to see how it connects with both the Celtic and Germanic branches via the Irish The Wooing of Etain, The Dream of Oengus, and the Scandinavian Skirnismal (along with the Prose Edda and other texts), as well as the Welsh Mabinogion. The denouement of this story, in the Indian version, is that the Horse Twins (Asvins) gain access to the Soma sacrifice and become full immortal gods. Before this point, the higher gods had looked down on the Asvins as mingling too much with humans, debasing themselves, and in general not being godlike enough, and thus the high gods had excluded the Twins from the Soma sacrifice and thus from immortality. However, Sukanya makes a promise to the Asvins that if they will renew her husband's youth, she and her husband will help the Asvins gain access to the Soma sacrifice. The Asvins uphold their part of the bargain, and so Sukanya and Chyavana fulfill theirs. With their help, the lowly third function gods are admitted to the society of the higher gods and gain the soma.
What is key to connecting these branches, is the fact that, while in one version of the Indian tale, from the Satapatha Brahmana, the Asvins are admitted to the sacrifice only after trading a riddle for an invitation, in another version, that found in the Mahabharata, in order to win the Asvins their place in the sacrifice, the sage Chyavana takes it upon himself to aggressively confront Indra. He demands justice for the Asvins and that they be treated as full gods. Indra disagrees powerfully, and lists off the faults of the Asvins, pointing out their ignoble closeness to humans, and that they are mere servants. Chyavana ignores Indra's rejection of the Asvins, and instead goes to give them a share of the Soma, upon which Indra attempts to throw his thunderbolt at Chyavana. Chyavana, however, magically paralyzes Indra and raises a great demon against him. The demon nearly devours Indra before Indra finally remits and agrees to allow the Asvins to be admitted to the sacrifice. The Asvins then join the sacrifice, join the society of the higher gods, gain a sort of equality with them, become immortal, and further, become priests of the sacrifice.
If we break this myth down into its essential components, we have 1. Horse Twins, who have been excluded from the high rite due to their low status and mingling with humans 2. a battle against the chief of the higher gods on their behalf (in which magic is used to defeat the high god) 3. resulting in them joining the society of the higher gods 4. gaining access to the high rite for the first time 5. and them becoming priests of the sacrifice.
Though the confrontation between Chyavana and Indra is brief and can easily be overlooked, it fulfills functionally the exact role that the Aesir-Vanir war does in the Norse mythology. Again in the Norse case we have 1. Horse Twin(s), who are seen as outsiders to the society of the high gods and to the high rite (Ursula Dronke argues the Vanir were seen as "all-too-popular," which matches the accusation against the Asvins that they spent too much time with humans) 2. a battle between them, their allies, and the high gods (in which magic is used to defeat the high gods in both cases) 3. resulting in them joining the society of the higher gods 4. gaining access to the high rite for the first time 5. and they too are said specifically to become the priests of the High Gods' sacrifice. If one accepts the premise that Freyr is a Horse Twin (which will be supported in the following series of sections), the match between these two myths is so perfect it is hard to understand how they have only rarely been compared (we must credit Jarich G. Oosten who has separately identified this general connection, in his book The War of the Gods, as well as certain comments by Dumezil which pointed out this direction). In fact, to understand simply that the core of the myth is the story of a lower set of gods battling the high gods, joining their society, accessing the highest rite, and then becoming priests of their sacrifice, and that in the Vedic version these lower gods are the Horse Twins, in itself supports the idea that either one or both of Freyr and Njörðr are Horse Twins. While Freyr does seem to be one of the Horse Twins, as we will see, the elder of the two, Njörðr, will be found to be more comparable to the mysterious older figure who fights the battle for the Asvins, Chyavana.
From this point it becomes even more difficult to find cognates in other branches. However, what we can find are possible fragments of the basic theme, and these sometimes in interesting places. We have previously theorized that Diomedes of the Iliad is the incarnation of one of the Horse Twins, specifically cognate to the “Young Son” Aengus Og and possibly to Freyr as well. In the Iliad, we find Diomedes acting out a pattern reminiscent of the one at issue. Diomedes famously is the brazen warrior who fights the immortal gods. At two different points we see Diomedes attacking the gods themselves, first wounding Ares and then Aphrodite. These confrontations of the gods seem wild and foolhardy on the part of the mortal Diomedes, but seen in the light of Diomedes' identification with the Horse Twins they have echoes of the Vanir battling the Aesir and of Chyavana battling Indra. The attacks of Diomedes catch the gods off guard and surprise them with how daring they are, and the ultimate result, besides anger and distress, is that Diomedes wins increased respect from the gods. It is afterward said that no mortal ever wounded more immortals in a day than did Diomedes. To finish the pattern, Diomedes is said to be given immortality by Athena and to become a god at the end of his life. Only Menelaus and Diomedes, of the primary Iliad heroes, are said to achieve this immortalization, and we have already shown that Menelaus' divinization is explained by the fact that he is cognate to King Yudhishthira-Mitra (one of the high gods), who is the last hero standing in the Indian epic, achieves the golden age internally and externally, and is admitted as an immortal to Paradise on the Holy Mountain.
Thus Diomedes again fulfills the same pattern we have seen thus far. 1. Horse Twin 2. fights a battle with the higher immortal gods 3. gains immortality and divinization and is admitted into the society of the high gods. The one important element missing from this is that he isn't specifically mentioned as becoming a priest of the sacrifice, though he is said to marry the daughter of Menelaus, truly becoming integrated into the society of the higher gods and, tellingly, dwelling with the Greek Horse Twins, the Dioscuri, themselves, much as the Horse Twin incarnations of the Mahabharata are absorbed back into the Asvin gods upon the deaths of these incarnations. Furthermore, the myths of the Dioscuri themselves actually complete the picture. Pollux, son of Zeus is said already to have immortality, but he shares it with his mortal brother upon his brother's death, and the two Twins alternate their dwelling between Olympus and Hades as a result. Thus they both end with a kind of immortality. Most importantly to the pattern we are discussing, as the Vanir and the Asvins are said to become priests of the sacrifice in the end, the Dioscuri are said also to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, which seems to be the Greek version of the Asvins becoming initiated into the Soma sacrifice as priests. Thus, while Diomedes enacts the first portion of this mythological pattern, the myths of the Dioscuri complete the picture, with them ending as initiates into the high rites which bring metaphysical elevation and an improved state in the afterlife.
The fragments of this myth become even less clear as we look at the mythology of the insular Celts, and yet the mythical implications become all the greater, as they lead us on a path toward the Grail legends. One resonance with the overall pattern is Irish Aengus Og (who we will later explain as the Irish Horse Twin), who famously tricks either the Dagda or Elcmar (Nuada) out of the sacred sídhe Brugh na Boinne. This would have been a main base and site of sacrifice for Elcmar and the Dagda, high gods indeed, and Aengus, a Horse Twin, usurping it, would mark his ascendency as a full divinity. If, as it seems, Elcmar is Nuada by another name, this would put Elcmar in the same position as Oðinn in the Norse version or Indra in the Indian, making the whole narrative seem to align with the motif thus far discussed. Indeed, since both Nuada and Dagda are likely parallels of different aspects of Oðinn, it makes sense that either of them could be the god that Aengus challenges, as seen in the variant versions of the myth. The fact that Aengus is said not to know until just before this confrontation that the Dagda is his true father also would make sense in this pattern: the god of the third function becoming re-integrated into the higher divine society from which he was alienated since birth, but for which he is destined. While the Vanir specifically use magic to defeat the Aesir, and Chyavana specifically uses magic to paralyze and subdue Indra, Aengus uses both a military “feint,” or diversionary attack, and a verbal trick to finally win the Brugh na Boinne. This verbal trick can be seen in this context as a kind of magic, like a spoken charm which overpowers the High King. It is no stretch to read this trick as such a kind of magic, considering the magical power the Celts saw invested in poems, satires, and other verbal charms, and this interpretation is fully supported and confirmed by another version of the same story. In “The Fosterage of the House of the Two Pails,” Manannan and Elcmar discuss the magic lay or charm that Aengus is given in order to compel Elcmar out of the Brugh na Boinne. In this case, this magic charm is given by Manannan to Aengus for this purpose, and when it is used Elcmar calls it “a charm and omen by magic and devilry to banish me.” Thus it can be said that Aengus indeed uses magic, along with military force, to overcome the High King of the gods and take the sidhe. In a separate tale, we hear that Aengus is known to take in the food and drink of immortality at Goibniu's Feast, this feast itself and its drink having a clear analogy to the soma sacrifice which brings immortality. Thus the basic elements of this mythic pattern are present in the Irish case as well, if in highly fragmented form. However, even more interesting is the Welsh case. As we will see from a thorough analysis of the Welsh Horse Twin myths, they are the basis of the legends of the famous Grail quester Percival. That is, following the trail of connections across Europe, it will be shown that the Holy Grail legend and the Aesir-Vanir war are, in fact, one and the same myth.
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Chyavana and the Asvins
The Chyavana story in Vedic myth goes back at least to the hymns of the Rig Veda, and is told as well in the Mahabharata and the Brahmanas, and can only be described as an extremely central myth of the deities known as the Horse Twins. Remarkably, this story actually appears in recognizably similar form in Irish myth as well, and by this comparison we can begin to narrow down a picture of these deities. Comparing, then, the myth of Chyavana as found in the Rig Veda, the Mahabharata and the Brahmanas with the Irish The Wooing of Etain, we find that these stories preserve key dramatic beats and remarkable small details, though sometimes in altered forms, across a vast amount of space and time. As such it seems that this myth may date back to a time before the Rig Veda, to before the time when these ethnic branches split from one another, in the mists of Indo-European prehistory.
Debatably the earliest recorded mention of the myth occurs in the Rig Veda in a hymn addressed to the Asvins: "That gift, which all may gain, ye gave Cyavana, when he grew old, who offered you oblations, when ye bestowed on him enduring beauty" (Rig Veda Book 7 LXVIII "Asvins," verse 6). This verse contains the general outline of the myth in question.
However, this is not all that is relevant to this connection. Three different “wooing” story groupings, which as we will see have become intertwined, present themselves to us stretching from Ireland to Wales to Scandinavia to India. These groupings are marked by uncanny similarities down to minute details difficult to explain at such a distance of space and time. We must trace these groupings in succession, then, and pay close attention to the ways in which they have begun to overlap and become blended together.
Firstly, we have the aforementioned tale of Chyavana: in its essential structure this is the marriage story of a figure who gets poked in the eye and then demands a fair maiden in recompense, ultimately participating in a “choosing” scene. This very same narrative pattern can be found in the story of Irish Midir. This grouping, then, equates Irish Midir with Indian Chyavana.
Grouping 1: Chyavana = Midir
1.Eye Poking, Maiden in Recompense
- Chyavana gets eyes poked with a branch by the “frolicking” Princess or clods of dirt thrown at his eyes by youths while they are playing. He asks the king for the Princess' hand in marriage in recompense. (Mahabharata, Satapatha Brahmana)
- Midir gets eye poked out with a “spit” of holly that is thrown at him by a group of quarreling youths while they are playing. He asks Aengus to woo Etain for him in recompense. (Wooing of Etain)
2.Encounters Rival Wooers (Named “Horseman”)
- Chyavana's wife is approached with attempt to woo by the Asvins (name meaning horsemen). (M)
- Midir's wife is approached with attempt to woo by Eochu (name meaning horseman) Airem (name meaning ploughman). (WoE)
3.Transformation Test
- Chyavana goes into a lake and emerges young and rejuvenated. He now appears similar to the Asvins, and Sukanya has to pick him out from among them in his changed form. She chooses correctly and they live happily. (M)
- Midir makes Eochu pick Etain out from among a group of other identical women. Eochu chooses incorrectly and confuses his daughter for his wife. Midir and Etain live happily. (WoE)
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We can see, then, a direct line between Chyavana and Midir. And yet the identity of each remains mysterious. However, from an analysis of the Rig Veda hymns, it becomes apparent that one of the main religious traditions belonging to the Asvins is that they were the rival wooers to the Moon God Soma for the hand of the Daughter of the Sun, Suryā. Furthermore, it is said that after their wooing they became bridesmen at the joyous wedding of Soma and Suryā just as the rival Asvins ultimately aid Chyavana and his wife Sukanya. This wedding tale is told in a long and detailed hymn in book 10 of the Rig Veda, called "Suryā's Bridal," which becomes key to our further interpretation of the larger puzzle.
The hymn narrates,
14 When on your threewheeled-chariot, O Asvins, ye came as wooers unto Suryā's bridal, Then all the Gods agreed to your proposal, Pusan as Son elected you as Fathers.
15 O ye Two Lords of lustre, then when ye to Suryā's wooing came [...]
18 By their own power these Twain in close succession move;
They go as playing children round the sacrifice.
One of the Pair beholdeth all existing things; the other ordereth seasons and is born again.
19 He, born afresh, is new and new for ever ensign of days he goes before the Mornings
Coming, he orders for the Gods their portion. The Moon prolongs the days of our existence.
20 Mount this, allshaped-, goldhued-, with strong wheels, fashioned of Kimsuka and Salmali, lightrolling-, Bound for the world of life immortal, Suryā: make for thy lord a happy bridal journey.
21 Rise up from hence: this maiden hath a husband, Seek in her father's home another fair one, and find the portion from of old assigned thee. Seek thou another willing maid and with her husband leave the bride.
We see that after the marriage, the Asvins go round the sacrifice like playing children, just as the Asvins gain access to the soma sacrifice at the end of the Chyavana myth. We also find that Soma, that is, the Moon God, is said to prolong the days of our existence and to lead his bride to the life immortal, as Chyavana seems in his myth to be in charge of admitting participants to the soma rite, which brings immortality. “One of the Pair” of Asvins is said to be born afresh, which is the power demonstrated by the Asvins in the tale which they use on Chyavana, but also parallels Welsh Pryderi being caught in the otherworld and then released again (a possible dying and rising motif), or Greek Castor dying and going to the underworld before being recuperated by his brother, and also may suggest the repeated theme of the Horse Twins at last achieving immortality. This Asvin is also said to order for the gods their portion, exactly as the Asvins in the Chyavana tale become priests and administers of the soma sacrifice in the end.
Can it in fact be believed that there is more than one tale of the Asvins as rival wooers, followed by a happy marriage in which they assist, afterward gaining access to the Soma sacrifice and becoming its priests and administers? It is possible, as mythology is full of repeating and similar patterns, but seems unlikely, that there could be two separate tales with this exact pattern and outcome, and thus we are forced to conclude that the most likely true identity of Chyavana of the tale is none other than the Moon god, Soma, and that his bride Sukanya is the daughter of the Sun, Suryā. In this context, things become clearer and clearer. Why, in fact, does Chyavana have the power to disarm the King of the Gods, Lord Indra, and to then give access to the soma sacrifice to the Asvins? With this power and privilege he cannot be some mere human or semidivine ascetic. Being Soma himself, however, his power over who may attend the soma sacrifice becomes clear as crystal, and on reflection seems the only logical thing. His power over Indra when in this domain can only be explained by his being some god on the highest level. His being the lord of the Moon itself and the lord over the central rite would be one of only a couple possible identifications that could explain such power.
Furthermore, once his lunar identity is understood, the entire theme of an old and withered Chyavana having his eye poked out and then being renewed in youth can be seen as a lunar allegory. The moon, as the hymn alludes, and as many other sources confirm, was seen as the source of immortality due to its eternal cycle of waxing again once it has waned, of being born again, made young again, each monthly cycle. Hence the poking out of the eye may be seen either as an eclipse or as the extinguishment of the old moon, the “Dark Moon” when its face has become fully invisible and it is about to begin a New Moon. Hence it is imaged here as an old man with his eye poked out. The Asvins then renew Chyavana's youth and make him young again. This is the Waxing Crescent as it comes into view and signifies the young, new life of another cycle. The daughter of the sun and the new moon being wed seemingly indicates the sun's rays striking the moon in this waxing phase, illuminating its surface and being united with it there, or it may have symbolized a synchronization of the sun and moon during this phase of the cycle in a more specific manner. It is a controversial subject, but there is textual evidence that at least as far back as the Iranic Avesta, the Indo-Europeans may have had a concept of the moon being lit by the sun. Hartmut Scharfe argues that because, in one verse, Mithra is described as having self-luminosity and being like the moon (see Mihr Yasht, 142), that this must mean that the moon was not seen as self-luminous. He argues that a fact such as the moon's self-luminosity would never need to be pointed out (as the sun is never called "self-luminous" either), and so the description of self-luminosity in this hymn must be a way of distinguishing the self-luminosity of Mithra from the light of the moon, while comparing the splendor of the two (“Rgveda, Avesta, and Beyond – ex occidente lux?”, Scharfe). According to Scharfe, Mithra's splendor is being described as like the moon and self-luminous.
James Francis Katherinus Hewitt as early as 1908 also made the connection between Chyavana and Soma. “There is a variant of Chyavana's story in the Rig Veda, X.85, 8-20,” he says. “There, the rejuvenated Chyavana is the Moon-god Soma, married to Surya, the Sun-maiden...The Aswins (Gemini) assisted at the marriage...By this hymn, the Ashwins were summoned to the assembly of the gods” (Hewitt, 310). Thus, while the identity of Chyavana remains contested, we build upon an established notion and add evidence to it.
While the power of Soma-Chyavana seems to be to give immortality itself, it seems to be the function of the Asvins within this network of gods to play the instrumental role of giving renewed youth, so that the gods do not merely live forever in an aged and decrepit state. This role relates astrologically to their identification as the morning and evening star – as the hymn says, going before the morning, apportioning the Soma, and mystically healing the gods of wounds and agedness. Chyavana itself means “the slipping one” or “the moving/falling one,” supposedly from the idea that he slipped from his mother's womb early. This may theoretically have a second meaning, the idea of the premature birth perhaps being a way of expressing the fact that the moon is commonly seen to rise in the sky before the sun has set and before night has yet arrived. It is indeed born prematurely each evening, if we take the dark night sky to be its proper domain.
If we suppose then, by our equation, that Irish Midir as well still carries this moon god identity and mythos, certain passages become more clear. In particular is Midir's primary physical description that “he was always fair, but on that night he was fairer” (The Wooing of Etain). Indeed, he is here being physically described at nighttime, and with a passage that would be more perfectly applied to no other thing than the moon. He is also said to carry “A silvern shield with rim of gold slung over his back, and a silver strap to it and boss of gold theron” -- a silver shield or other circular object of course making a classic lunar symbol. The fact that he is said to have in his hand “a five pronged spear” may connect him to the wealth of the sea, an association we know Njörðr and Soma both to have (as we will see further on). Additionally, Midir is called a powerful magician, just as Chyavana's magico-ascetic force is feared by both Sukanya's father and Lord Indra himself. And one of the main powers Midir demonstrates is the power to put others to sleep (Chyavana's demonstrated power is to paralyze), as he does to Ailil, again only during night time when his trysts with Etain are planned, the power of putting to sleep being an obvious nocturnal and thus lunar power. Midir is also said to have three wondrous cows at his stronghold in the Land of Promise, while, as we will see in a later chapter, the wondrous cow Glas Gabhnenn is a stand-in for the sacred “soma” liquid in another tale. Lastly, Midir is able to transform himself and Etain into swans in the conclusion of their tale, white birds which are exceedingly common lunar symbols, so that they may escape together. As such, this final self-transformation may be merely like a combining of the renewal-transformation of Chyavana and his subsequent marriage into a single concise tableau – the union of moon and ray of sun in the waxing crescent, pictured as two swans embracing in flight.
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The Norse Lunar Cycle
Now that we know the basic elements of this lunar Soma cycle, we can begin to spot them, in an exceedingly fragmentary form, just where we would expect them, in a series of tales about the third function gods of the Norse, the Vanir, and the Aesir-Vanir War in which they are combatants. For if the tale of Chyavana and the Asvins fighting Indra, and the Asvins becoming priests of the sacrifice, is the same as the Vanir fighting Óðinn and the Aesir, and becoming priests of their sacrifice, then we should find more or less the same events in the myths of the gods who fight this war in each case.
It first needs explaining that Mani, the generally recognized Moon god of Norse myth, does not seem to figure in this sequence of events which we have named “lunar.” However, what basic analysis of the myths has shown is that the Indo-European people often had more than one moon deity or moon-related deity, just as they sometimes had more than one sun deity or sun-related deity. These could of course designate different aspects of the moon or sun. In the Vedic case, one form of the moon god is Chandra, whose name means “shining,” who is an ancestor figure of the Lunar Dynasty, which spawns the Kuru kings who fight the Kurukshetra War. The god of the soma plant is theorized to have at one point been a separate god and then to have become identified with the moon as well as with associated figures such as Indu (“bright drop”), and Osadhipati (“physician, lord of herbs”). Whether the Soma god was originally only a plant god or was always seen as a lunar deity, there was certainly a period where Soma, Chandra, and the others were associated but had separate myths of their own, until at last they were simply known in Vedic myth as Chandra-Soma or simply Soma. There is, however, no reason to think that the moon and lunar plant gods necessarily became one deity in the European branches in the same fashion.
As we have seen, the "Surya's Bridal" hymn involving Chyavana is about the moon god Soma specifically, rather than Chandra, and it seems to contain themes relating to both his lunar function and his function as god of the soma plant and sacrifice. Indeed, the hymn to "Surya's Bridal" was likely created after the soma plant had been identified with the moon, as the opening verses of the hymn seem to clearly suggest Soma's lunar character. The scholars Jamison and Brereton, translators and editors of a current benchmark scholarly edition of the Rig Veda (2014), believe that this was the first hymn in the Rid Veda to clearly identify Soma with the moon. However, language relating to “waxing” or “swelling” is used to describe Soma even before this hymn, and even if he was only a lord of plants or waters these could have been seen as spheres under the domain of the Lunar power from much earlier, hence why he was eventually syncretized to Chandra at all. In the first Book of the Rig Veda we find: “Soma, wax great. From every side may vigorous powers unite in thee:/Be in the gathering-place of strength./Wax, O most gladdening Soma, great through all thy rays of light, and be/A Friend of most illustrious fame to prosper us” (1.91.16-17). How and when Soma was combined with the moon itself, if he was ever fully separate, and then with Chandra, then becomes a key subject for further research.
Thus, in keeping with the parallels we have demonstrated thus far, we may consider the myths of the Vanir and the Aesir-Vanir War potentially as a centering on a lunar myth specifically connected to the Norse version of the soma as the liquid of immortality given to the gods in sacrifice. The culmination of the war in an exchange of hostages associated with divine drinks or liquids (Kvasir, Mimir and Njorðr in Ynglinga Saga, Mimir and Njorðr in other sources) and the accession of the Vanir to priests of the high sacrifice underscores this connection to the soma. Mani, on the other hand, not connected to this cycle, may more accurately be seen as either comparable to Chandra or perhaps even as another manifestation of the moon divinity in an aspect unrelated to either Soma or Chandra.
In fact what we find in the sequence leading up to the Aesir-Vanir War are nearly all of the elements of the Chyavana tale, however they have been split up and distributed to a few deities rather than attached only to one. Despite this splitting up, it cannot be ignored that the same elements exist here, often linked one to the next and including the confrontation of the lower gods with the higher and their ascendence to priests of the sacrifice. Thus, as we go along in examining these linked motifs, we are tasked with deciding if each of these gods who take roles paralleling the Indian Chyavana-Soma are related to the lunar epiphany in some way, as aspects of the moon, or only as auxiliary performers in a lunar cycle, with separate identities.
The story of Iðunn and the golden apples, which begins the events that lead up to the marriage of Njorðr and Skaði, shares the identical main theme of the Chyavana tale: the matter of renewing the youth of the gods when they begin to grow old. For the Norse, this important function is performed by the golden apples, tended by Iðunn. In the Vedic version, this same function is performed by the special herbal paste, one form of which comes to be known as the Chyavanaprash, which the Asvins give to Chyavana when he goes into the water and has his youth renewed. As we can see, these objects are quite different and their keepers are here so dissimilar that they are of opposite genders. So important, however, is their function that we must look past these surface differences to see the way in which each object plays a key role in very similar sequences of events.
Specifically, we see that the abduction of Iðunn causes the identical problem, the identical state that we encounter at the beginning of the Chyavana tale: Chyavana on the one hand and the Norse gods on the other have now grown old and decrepit, and require the herbal paste or the golden apples to renew their youthful state. Furthermore, the killing of Thjazi for stealing these apples, which follows, incites the same situation and outcomes that the poking of Chyavana's eye by Sukanya (or alternately by the playing youths) does: Thjazi's daughter Skaði must be given recompense for this deed, concluding with a marriage involving a “choosing” scene, just as Chyavana must be recompensed, concluding with a marriage, followed by an analogous “choosing” scene. Tellingly, one of the recompenses to Skaði for the killing of Thjazi is the removal of Thjazi's eyes and their placement into the sky as stars. Therefore once again, right where we would expect a key element – the poking out of eyes – we find it, only changed slightly. In the Norse version the eye removal motif is itself one of the recompenses, while in the Indian version the poking of eyes is one of the causes which require recompense. And of course, in the Norse version it is the female deity, Skaði, who is given the husband, Njörðr, as the final recompense, while it is the male Chyavana who is given the female princess Sukanya in the Indian version. The roles have simply been reversed, while the outcome is identical: each pair undergoes the “choosing” scene (Skaði choosing Njörðr (whose feet have been kept young by the waters of his domain) from among the gods by looking only at their feet and Sukanya choosing Chyavana (who has just emerged from the waters of a lake renewed in youth) from among the same-looking Asvins), and the gods acquire or reacquire that which renews their youth, the golden apples or the magical herbal paste.
Above all, what this sequence seems to suggest is an identity between Njörðr and Chyavana-Soma, and between Skaði and Sukanya, while Thjazi then either seems to be here embodying a role related in some way to the cause of the decaying of the gods and/or the waning of the moon. The identification of Skaði with Sukanya-Surya would of course imply that Skaði could be a daughter of the Sun, which would not fit the interpretation of Thjazi as part of the lunar hierophany. Thus we would have to suggest that Thjazi could be a destructive aspect of the sun which may have been seen as greedily taking away the youth of the gods or the light of the moon in some manner. We could of course conclude that this exact familial relationship may have been altered in one tradition or the other, just as several other details show the signs of change and difference. Thjazi is a giant also said to be skaut-giarn which has been translated in one case as “eager for shooting” – archery being an extremely common indicator of solar activity in myth, the sun shooting rays from afar, while Skaði is known as “the shining bride of the gods,” and is said to use both bow and skis as the solar Ullr also does.
The only manuscript of Hyndluljod, found in Flateyjarbok, appears to have skaut-giarn, which some scholars have emended to skraut-giarn, adding a k. Skaut-giarn, the compound word as it is in the manuscript, has several possible meanings, recorded by the LaFarge-Tucker Glossary (1988): “eager for shooting,” which interpretation however requires us to read the “au” as a stand-in for u-umlaut ö, making the first word skröt, said to be an allowable reading but not the simplest one; “fond of disguises (Gerring) or fond of sailing (Finnur-Jonsson).” The reading of “eager for shooting” is not the one favored by the most scholars, but remains a possibility if we consider that the mythic context for it may have been lost. We merely note this as an uncertain epithet with several other possible meanings. We hold that Thjazi very well could be connected to an aspect of the sun, but that this is by no means necessary for our overall argument. This detail could have shifted. In the case of Sukanya, she is the great-granddaughter of Vivasvan, the Sun god himself, and because she incarnates the Daughter of the Sun, her own father may or may not incarnate the Sun god as well. A grandfather or other relative of Skaði who is not Thjazi could connect her to the solar mythos in the Norse case, or this parentage could have been forgotten altogether.
If we accept Viktor Rydberg's equivalency of Thjazi with the smith Volund, which argument cannot be laid out here, then there is further support for the idea that he “loves to shoot,” and could be a solar divinity of some sort. In Volundarkvida, Volund uses skis in order to hunt bear, causing him to appear similar to Skadi and Ullr, the other ski and bow divinities. He is called “sharp-sighted marksman,” or, in another translation, “weather-wise bowman” (Volundarkvida 8). Whether Thjazi loves to shoot or not, Volund, his posited double, does seem to. Volund also is called an elf king (Volundarkvida 10) (even if he appears only to be half elf), the alfar having solar associations as we note elsewhere. It is said that at his hall he has 700 rings (Volundarkvida 10), while rings are one of the central symbols, as we have seen, of the Sun god Ullr. Thjazi himself, like Volund, is in general closely associated with gold, gold being known as “Thazi's testimony,” which could have a specific mythic meaning while also expressing the fact that gold can be poetically likened to an emanation of the sun.
Rydberg argues that Thjazi-Volund is one of the “Sons of Ivaldi,” divine artisans of the Norse pantheon who compete in an artistic competition, and compares these figures to the Vedic Rbhus, divine artisans who compete in a very similar competition. The Rbhus seem themselves to have been solar deities. “Initially, Ribhus [singular] was an early Vedic sun deity,” says Charles Russel Coulter. He notes that in some passages they are called sons of the goddess of morning light, Saranyu, and in the Atharvaveda are said to be sons of Sudhavan, the “good archer” (Coulter, 1892). Similarly to Adityas, Maruts and Vasus, the Rbhus “appear as stars or rays of the sun” (1893). In the Aitareya Brahmana, III, 30 they are called the “sun's neighbors or pupils,” and are said to periodically dwell in the house of “he who is not to be concealed,” Agohya, an epithet of the Sun. If this figure Rbhus was “sun deity” in the earliest phase, this could explain why Thjazi appears in such a solar family, as the father of a sun princess. There could either have been a splitting apart of this early sun deity and the solar artisans in the Vedic branch, or a simple coinciding of these aspects in the Norse branch. We could then either interpret Thjazi as a hypostasis of the sun itself, or as only a family member or descendant of the sun who shares in and passes along its qualities to his solar daughter.
Indeed, if we follow Rydberg down this path, and accept also Volund's brother Egil (as great an archer as can be found in Norse legend and myth) as the father of Ullr (and thus an elder Sun god like Irish Elatha), then we have suddenly a fully united family of Sun deities: Thjazi, his daughter Skadi, his brother Egil (along with a third brother), Egil's son Ullr, and, if Rydberg is correct in his further equations, a brother of Ullr, Odr, who is the lover or husband or Freyja. Earendel, a form of Aurvandil, who Rydberg equates with Egil, is called the “true light of the sun” in the medieval Christian poem Crist I, and, in the Blickling Homilies, makes way for and announces a younger “Sun” god, here said to be Christ, who perhaps takes the position previously held by the younger Sun god Ullr. Earandel is also used in the Old English corpus to translate, among other things, oriens, the Latin term meaning “rising sun.” If the aforementioned Odr, called Ullr's brother by Rydberg, is also a sun deity, like the other members of his theorized family, it would lend credence to the idea, which we will touch on further along, that Freyja stands as a parallel to the Dawn goddess. We would have Odr and Ullr as solar brothers, at least one of whom weds this goddess. This then would seem to be the imperfect parallel of what we find in the case of the Iliad: Helen adulterously marries not just one solar figure, but two brothers in succession, the sun incarnation Paris and his brother Diephobus, who is a sort of double of Paris and whose name also suggests a possible solar character. Ullr does not necessarily need to be a lover of Freyja for this parallel to prove meaningful, as the role of husband of this goddess could have been held only by his brother in the Norse case. This perspective also makes possible one explanation for why the myth of the Sun god and Dawn goddess marriage is split from the myth of the cuckolding of the Mitraic god in the Irish case. Once again we have two potentially solar figures: the Sun god Bres, who marries the Dawn goddess, and Cermait, “of form all fair,” with a tongue of honey, who cuckolds Lugh and is killed in revenge. In this case Bres and Cermait are not brothers, however, but they are still closely related, Bres being the paternal uncle of Cermait. Cermait dies but rises again, revived by his father the Dagda, further opening him up to a solar interpretation.
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Njörðr and Soma
We would be left then with Njörðr as the primary repository of the Soma mythos in Norse mythology, as the presumptive “soma” plant (whatever its Norse equivalent was) and moon god and, if the Norse model matches the Indian, lord of the liquid of immortality, and a lord of the liquid element generally, of the waters. This would connect very well with Njörðr's close association with the sea, the moon seen as the master of the waters of the ocean and of waters generally. Encyclopedia Britannica describes the deity Soma thus:
The personified deity Soma was the “master of plants,” the healer of disease, and the bestower of riches... The pressing of soma was associated with the fertilizing rain, which makes possible all life and growth.
Njörðr is repeatedly associated with wealth as well as the sea, as when he and Skadi go to live at the sea periodically during their marriage. His home by the sea, Noatun, means “ship-enclosure.” In Gylfaginning 23 he is said to be prayed to for sea voyages, fishing, and wealth: “He is invoked by seafarers and by fishermen. He is so rich and wealthy that he can give broad lands and abundance to those who call on him for them.” In the same passage Snorri says has the power to still sea and fire. He is called “the giving god” in Skaldskaparmal, and in Heimskringla is called “wealthy” again and is said to have power over general prosperity and the growth of crops (another perennial lunar power). Similarly, endless associations of the Vedic god Soma to both wealth and waters can be found by a brief perusal of book 9 of the Rig Veda, the book of the Rig Veda entirely dedicated to Soma (also called here "Pavamana" and "Indu"):
"The mighty waters, yea, the floods accompany thee Mighty One” (9.2.4)
“The lake is brightened in the floods. Soma, our Friend
this God dives into waters, and bestows
Rich gifts upon the worshipper
Away he rushes with his stream, across the regions, into heaven,
And roars as he is flowing on.” (9.3.5-7)
“O Indu, bring us wealth in steeds, manifold, quickening all life.” (9.4.10)
“Flow on to us and make us rich.
Send down the rain from heaven, a stream of opulence from earth. Give us,
O Soma, victory in war.” (9.8.7-8)
“In the stream's wave wise Soma dwells, distilling rapture” (9.12.3)
“O Pavamana, bring us wealth bright with a thousand splendours.” (9.12.9)
“May they in flowing give us wealth in thousands, and heroic power,—
These Godlike Soma-drops effused.” (9.13.5)
“Comprising all the treasures that are in the heavens and on the earth,
Come, Soma, as our faithful Friend.” (9.14.8)
“Becoming Sovran of the streams.
“He, over places rough to pass, bringing rich treasures closely packed.
Descends into the reservoirs.
Men beautify him in the vats, him worthy to be beautified,
Him who brings forth abundant food.” (9.15.5-7)
“He who containeth in his hands all treasures much to be desired:
All-bounteous art thou in carouse.” (9.18.4)
“O Pavamana, find us wealth.” (9.19.6)
“For he, as Pavamana, sends thousandfold treasure in the shape
Of cattle to the singing-men.” (9.20.2)
“Pour lofty glory on us, send sure riches to our liberal lords,
Bring food to those who sing thy praise.” (9.20.4)
“Thou, Soma, boldest wealth in kine which thou hast seized from niggard churls" (9.22.7)
Perhaps most striking,
"Soma, Lord of wealth:
Fill full the sea that claims our praise.” (9.29.3)
“O Indu, as thou flowest on bring us the wealth of earth and heaven,
And splendid vigour, in thy stream.” (9.29.6)
“THE, Soma-drops, benevolent, come forth as they are purified,
Bestowing wealth which all may see.” (9.31.1)
“the rivers flow to thee Soma” (9.31.3)
“LIKE waves of waters, skilled in song the juices of the Soma speed
Onward" (9.33.1)
And:
"From every side, O Soma, for our profit, pour thou forth four seas
Filled full of riches thousandfold.” (9.33.6)
“Pour forth on us abundant wealth, O Pavamana, with thy stream.
Wherewith thou mayest find us light
O Indu, swayer of the sea, shaker of all things, flow thou on,
Bearer of wealth to us with might.” (9.35.1-2)
“May Soma pour all treasures of the heavens, the earth, the firmament
Upon the liberal worshipper.” (9.36.5)
“FLOW On, O thou of lofty thought
Preparing what is unprepared, and bringing store of food to man,
Make thou the rain descend from heaven.” (9.39.1-2)
“O Indu, Soma, send us now great opulence from every side, Pour on us treasures thousandfold.
O Soma Pavamana, bring, Indu, all splendours hitherward:
Find for us food in boundless store.
As thou art cleansed, bring hero strength and riches to thy worshipper,
And prosper thou the singer's hymns.
O Indu, Soma, being cleansed, bring hither riches doublypiled,
Wealth, mighty Indu, meet for lauds.” (9.40.3-6)
“Pour out on us abundant food, when thou art pressed, O Indu wealth
In kine and gold and steeds and spoil.
Flow on thy way, Most Active, thou. fill full the mighty heavens and earth,
As Dawn, as Sūrya with his beams.
On every side, O Soma, flow round us with thy protecting stream,
As Rasā flows around the world.” (9.41.4-6)
“Soma, while purifying, sends hither all things to be desired
Soma, effused, pour on us wealth in kine, in heroes, steeds, and spoil,
Send us abundant store of food.” (9.42.5-6)
“O Soma Pavamana, find exceeding glorious wealth for us,
Wealth, Indu, fraught with boundless might.” (9.43.4)
“So, to increase our wealth to-day, Inspirer” (9.44.6)
“Unbar for us the doors of wealth.” (9.45.3)
“Thus, Soma, Conqueror of wealth! flow, finding furtherance for us,
Giver of ample opulence.
Lord over riches” (9.46.5)
“WEALTH-WINNER, dwelling in the sky” (9.52.1)
“Pourst down the rain upon us, pour a wave of waters from the sky,
And plenteous store of wholesome food.” (9.49.1)
“Indu, Wealth-giver” (9.52.5)
“pour forth the food that streams with milk
Increase the sea that merits laud.” (9.61.15)
“Soma who rainest gifts, may we win riches with our hero sons" (9.61.23)
As Eliade sums it up, the moon governs the seas and the rains, and all fertility is its gift (Eliade, Patterns, §§ 49 ff). "The organic connection between the moon and vegetation is so strong that a very large number of fertility gods are also divinities of the moon," he says, further asserting that "In almost all the gods of vegetation there persist lunar attributes or powers -- even when their divine "form" has become completely autonomous"(Eliade, 162). The moon was seen as an agricultural god (by Indo-Europeans as well as other peoples), a source of vegetative powers, rains, and the wealth they bring, just as Njörðr is most prominently known to be god of the sea and of wealth.
Njörðr's unsuccessful marriage to Skaði, where three nights would be spent at sea and nine would be spent on the mountain tops could then indicate an understanding of the seasons or lunar phases, certain ones ruled by the moon, others more dominated by the ray of sun which rises above the mountain peaks and gleams down their snowy slopes like a skier. Indeed, wolves disturb Njörðr in the mountains by their howling (a striking lunar image), and it is said that he loves rather the placid lunar animal the swan. Skaði is awoken each morning by gulls, as could be said of the sunbeam. Their failed marriage then would be seen on the material level either as the waning and vanishing of light from the moon, or as the transition from night to day, where the sunbeam must be wed to other husbands, or as some seasonal or lunisolar change.
It may be objected here that if the son of Njörðr, Freyr, is supposed to be the Horse Twin god, then he ought to be the son of Father Sky, as seen in Vedic, Greek, and Irish myth, or at least the son of the Sun god, as in some versions of the Vedic tradition. After all, the Twins, and indeed Freyr himself, seem to be very solar gods. How then could a Horse Twin have been born of a moon god?
The more specific evidence for Freyr as a Horse Twin will be presented in the subsequent parts. One possibility is that, by the Asvins' important association with Soma as seen in the primary myth we have been discussing, the Horse Twin(s) and Moon god maybe have become so closely linked to one another as to become considered father and son in the Norse version. Alternately, the moon as father of the Horse Twins could have been the more archaic and original parentage, though this can only be speculated upon. Ultimately, the fact that both the Horse Twins and the Soma god have close associations to plentifulness, wealth, and other such "third function" domains, and that their central myth involves them teaming up against the higher gods in order to win admittance to the sacrifice, makes the pair a natural grouping and gives them a true familial character.
It must be remembered that Njörðr is almost never proposed to be Father Sky or the Sun god in the first place, but is generally supposed simply to be a sea deity or perhaps a god of the plentifulness of both land and sea, pictured as a hypothetical mate to the theorized Earth goddess Nerthus. Thus to claim Njörðr is in fact Soma, the plant and moon god, is no more a problem for Freyr's proposed Horse Twin parentage than the usual interpretations are. And as we can see from the fact that Vedic tradition already shows examples of the Horse Twins' parentage changing from Sky to Sun, it is evident their parentage was not unchangeable. The Moon god, after all, a great celestial deity already closely associated with them in myth, would be a more logical alternate of the Sky Father than a “sea god” would. In fact, the Horse Twins are not purely solar gods, and are more accurately markers of the transitional state between night and day, associated with morning and possibly evening stars as well as sunrise and possibly sunset, known primarily as bringers of light from the darkness. Hence, the Horse Twin Freyr could be seen as son of the Moon in this sense, following his father's setting by rising as the morning star and leading the way for day via his wedding to another of the shining maidens of the house of the sun god.
One very strong support for the Horse Twin-Moon god pairing is the Irish Midir, who we have identified with Chyavana and Njörðr. While the Father Sky god the Dagda is the father of the Horse Twin Aengus, Midir is said to be Aengus' foster father. Thus Father Sky and the Soma Moon God share the paternal role in relation to the Horse Twin in the Irish version. This may be evidence that the Moon god and Father Sky were originally seen as sharing parentage of the Horse Twin in a certain way. Furthermore, in the Welsh version, the figure known as Pwyll, father to Pryderi the "Young Son" Horse Twin born on the same night as a horse to his horse goddess mother, seems also to be a lunar god, either the Soma-associated Gandharva or the Moon god himself, as we will see. Thus the Welsh version would also break the tradition of Horse Twin as son of Father Sky, instead making him son of a lunar-related deity once again. The Norse, Irish, and Welsh cases all showing moon-related gods as father figures to the Horse Twin(s) would constitute a veritable trend in this direction, indicating that in Northwestern European this lunar heritage of the Horse Twin(s) was well understood
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Gullveig, Heiðr and Mímir as Lunar Aspects
The lunar theme surrounding the Vanir does not seem to end with the identification of Njörðr as Soma, and a few of the other figures surrounding the Aesir-Vanir War itself must each be (much more speculatively) looked at from the perspective of this great lunar cycle. For there are others involved in the lead up and aftermath of the Aesir-Vanir conflict who seem to make no appearance in the Indian version and who it would be prudent to attempt to account for in the context of the lunar theme.
First is Gullveig, a mysterious personage who is suggested to have had some unspecified role in the inciting events of the war. She is killed three times for some unstated offense, being born again each time. Dumezil notes her similarity to the Roman Tarpeia, a Sabine woman who betrays the Sabines to the Romans hoping for a payment of gold, but is instead killed. One common position holds that Gullveig is merely a goddess or demon of greed of some kind, her name possibly meaning “gold intoxication.” Some interpreters also relate her to the goddess Freyja (see Simek). However, knowing that the context in which she appears is a lunar myth cycle, if we instead begin by attempting to read Gullveig in terms of lunar symbolism, we can perhaps better understand her nature and why she is involved with this cycle to begin with.
According the the Voluspa, Gullveig tames wolves, as the moon, especially when full, often seems to do; she knows magic arts, which are sometimes associated with the power of the moon, as with the powers of the Irish Midir and Indian Chyavana; and she “is the joy of evil people,” as night itself certainly is, especially when well lit by a clear moon, the time for shameful hidden crimes and other wicked possibilities. One meaning of veig is “alcoholic drink,” which itself could ultimately derive from the association of the moon with various special beverages and with derangement of the senses (lunacy) in all forms. Gullveig dies and is reborn three times, just as the moon is a master of repeated resurrection as it wanes and waxes again. The full moon, after all, is generally seen to last three nights, just as Gullveig is killed and reborn three times. Her name, also containing gull, meaning “gold,” suggests that she could then be a hierophany of the moon at its maximum power, when it is exercising its fullest and most dangerous lunar influence, intoxicating people and enabling evil to be done by its light; that is, the full moon, and more specifically the golden-yellow full moon. What would symbolically match the idea of a "golden alcoholic drink"? The sun? No, it is golden but not intoxicating or as closely associated with liquid. Gold itself? No, it is not associated with liquid. The golden moon, repeatedly connected with waters and beverages, would be a correct symbolic match for this concept.
If this is so, then it is the frightful influence of this golden-yellow full moon that may be part of what causes the gods to have to kill her three times to quell the powerful, destructive force she is able to exert on people and perhaps gods alike. Her power has become too great and must be reduced. She is finally neutralized and transformed, fittingly, into the more benign “Heiðr,” meaning “bright, clear” (meaning also “fame”), perhaps a placid, no longer dangerously golden-yellow moon.
Ursula Dronke, in her translation of the Poetic Edda, points out that heið- is found as an element in names relating to the sacred mead: Heiðrun, the goat that "yields the 'shining mead' of the gods" in Grimnismal 25, and Heiðdraupnir, the "skull that drips sacred mead" in Sigrdrifumal (Dronke, 131). As such, Dronke, like Robert Hockert before her, suggests that Heiðr may have had an intimate connection to the mead. Hockert himself argues that Gullveig and Heiðr could even be "interpreted as a personification of the mythical mead" itself (Kuusela, Halls, Gods, and Giants, 28). Additionally, the Norwegian word veigja, and the Icelandic veig, both contain the element veig and mean “intoxicating drink.” Building on the possibility of Gullveig as directly connected to the mead, and bringing it back to the soma sacrifice, around which so much Vedic mythology seems to orbit: could the changing of the color of the moon from gold to white have been seen as a process of purification of the mead that metaphysically originated there? Was this heavenly process also repeated in the processing of the soma or mead that was offered at the archaic sacrifices, the juice of the plant at first being yellow, perhaps overly strong, then being mixed and clarified into a final form fit for sacrifice, just as the full moon itself changes from yellow to white? In just such a way, Encyclopedia Britannica describes the process of preparing the Iranic version of this drink, the haoma: "The juice, described as yellow, was filtered and mixed with milk, to cut the bitter taste, and perhaps with water too" (Encyclopedia Britannica). Though we cannot expect processing of the juice of local Iranic plants to match the processing of the Germanic mead very closely, the beverages of both branches likely had a yellowish color, if for different reasons. We will see, in a later section looking at the Irish and Vedic parallels of Gullveig's myth, that the Vedic myth of the churning of the milk sea also includes a poisonous gas that has to be contained (by Shiva) and neutralized while the nectar of immortality is being extracted. Thus this general concept is present in a less encoded form in relation to the drink of immortality within Indo-European mythology.
Second, we have the case of Mímir. Why is Mímir, keeper of the mystical well, involved in the Aesir-Vanir hostage exchange at all, and what does this mean? The wise Vanir exchanged for him in Snorri's Ynglingasaga, Kvasir, who was born of the saliva of both the Aesir and Vanir and whose blood made the Mead of Poetry, can be associated with the Soma theme via the shared thematic of “drinks of the gods.” Thus Mímir’s presence in this myth too reinforces the idea that “the drinks of the gods” could be one of the subjects around which the war turns. Kvasir is exchanged, in the Ynglingasaga version, as seems fit, for the equally or more wise Mímir, who is also associated with a drinkable liquid capable of giving intellectual powers, the water of his well. The presence of these two in explicit juxtaposition reinforces the idea that Njörðr and Freyr themselves may have a deeper connection to the drinks of the gods, as we have seen, perhaps with Njörðr as master of the waters generally, which ultimately metaphysically originate the various sacred drinks, and Freyr as the orderer and administer of the connected sacrifice. Yet there is distinctly lacking from Njörðr's extant body of myths any other indication that he himself had a direct connection to the drinks of either immortality or illumination themselves besides as a lord of waters and ultimately as priest of the general Aesir sacrifice. By their association in the hostage exchange then, we should look also at Mímir, to see if we can find this link to the sacred drinks themselves, and so to see if Mímir too may have originated as in some way related to, or even as an aspect of, the moon.
Soma, seen by the Vedics as both the plant, the moon and the liquid that grants immortality simultaneously, forms a symbolic match to Mímir if we picture the moon as simultaneously a severed head and a round well where a divine liquid is held. Wisdom would then reside in this well that is Mímir's head, just as immortality is contained in the liquid of the moon which is also the god Soma. Commentator Timothy Stephany sees a similar connection, pointing out that the phases of the moon mimic the shining of sunlight into a well. Stephany suggests that the moon could then be considered the well, while the face on the moon could be seen as the head of Mímir. Alternately, Mímir's Well could be one location on the moon which is Mímir's head. This theory would also fit very well with the idea that Óðinn carries Mímir's head around with him, while it wisely advises him. If we accept Óðinn as – in one part – an analog of the Vedic Varuna, this would make him the god of the night sky. Hence, his carrying around of Mímir's head would simply be an image of the moon floating in the night sky.
Even the pledging of Óðinn’s eye to this well could speculatively be seen as another layer of this same lunar hierophany. If, as Dumezil and many others have suggested, Óðinn is a sky god parallel to Vedic Varuna, and if one of his eyes is the sun, and he is also a god of night sky, then the other eye could be considered to be the moon. (The sun is frequently referred to as the eye of Vedic Varuna and Iranic Ahura Mazda, and of the case of Varuna, Hartmut Scharfe says: "in VIII 41,9ab Varuṇa's “two white eyes” (śvetā́ vicakṣaṇā́) almost certainly refer to the sun and the moon" (Scharfe, Rgveda, Avesta, and Beyond)). However, if the moon is also considered to be this sacred well, then the moon would simultaneously be the well and Óðinn’s eye, one within the other, the eye in the well. This kind of metaphysical symbolic layering, multiplying of hierophanies around a supposedly singular phenomena, is typical of religious and mythological symbolism. The myths are not simply a symbolic game, however, so this highly speculative line of thought should be balanced by an account of the other metaphysical dimensions present in the given myth.
The mythologist Victor Rydberg was in agreement with the equation of Mímir and Soma, saying, “Mímir was understood as a priest because he was the author of the sacred fimbul-songs, and Óðinn‘s counselor, and was originally identical to Rigveda‘s king Soma, who is the mythic representative of the Vedic priests” (47 - Rydberg, Towards the Baldur Myth). If this is so, the Soma mythos, as we have seen, is not so easily restricted solely to the figure of Mímir, and the case for Njörðr as Soma is actually stronger than the case for Mímir.
Etymological evidence further connects Mímir to concepts often related to the moon. The etymology of Mímir is generally accepted as coming from a reduplication of the Proto-Indo-European verb *(s)mer-. The meaning of this verb most often cited when discussing Mímir is “memory,” relating to his apparent character as a god of deep wisdom. However, the verb also has the meaning of “to allot.” In Persian, Kurdish and Pashto this root developed into the word for “to count,” while in Hittite it is the root of the verb “mark,” meaning “to divide a sacrifice.” On the other hand, the word for “moon” in Sanskrit comes from Proto-Indo-European *méh₁n̥ss, probably from *meh₁-, meaning “to measure.” Hence the fact that the archaic Indo-Europeans saw the moon as being in one of its primary aspects a measurer, so crucial as it was to marking the days as it measured them out via its even and steady phases, is apparent in the words they used to name it. The moon was preeminently “the measurer.” Mímir, on the other hand, with his deep memory, was “the allotter” or “the counter.” If we return briefly to Irish Midir, who we have shown to be equated with Chyavana-Soma and Njörðr, we find that his name, Midir (already so similar in appearance to Mímir), meaning “judge,” derives ultimately from a proposed Proto-Indo-European root, *med-, meaning “to measure.” That is, the name Midir comes from a perfect synonym of the root of the aforementioned word for moon, a synonym which is indeed orthographically almost the same word (med- vs. meh-). To compound this etymological mystery, we find that the second meaning of this root (connected to Midir but not to Mímir), *med-, is “to give advice” – coincidentally this is of course just the thing said to be Mímir's main function.
There are further curious cases of etymological overlap among the figures thus far discussed. The aforementioned root *med- yields (along with Armenian mit, “mind”), in Old Norse, mjotudr, meaning “dispenser of fate.” From the root of Mímir previously stated, *(s)mer-, is yielded in Greek moira, the name of the Fates. Additionally, this root can mean "to worry over," and yields Greek merimna, meaning “care, thought” and “anxious mind,” while the meaning of the Welsh Pwyll's name (who we will relate to this cycle in subsequent sections, and who stands in a similar but distinct position in the Welsh myths as Midir does in the Irish or Njörðr does in the Norse) is “care, deliberation” and also “discretion, wisdom, judgment, mind,” and derived also from its Proto-Indo-European root *kweyt- is also the Slavic cisti, “to count.”
This is not a clear division of meanings between clear parallel figures, but a persistent and irreducible cross-pollination of similar, identical, and connected meanings even among figures who are closely positioned but who should not be strictly equal (Mímir, Midir, Pwyll), yet who are linked by this complex cycle of lunar significances.
Can we say clearly then who any of these figures are, or at least give a sense of how they interrelate? As for the Norse cases, we could of course decide to say that the Soma mythos was merely fragmented and then overlaid here and there over gods loosely connected to the central myth as best fit the narrative expediency, and that we cannot say for sure if any of these figures were definitively lunar in origin. Or conversely, we can simply take the clues we have from the myths to understand the separate aspects of the moon and sacred waters that these deities embody. This gives us: Njörðr, the moon as it relates to the wedding with “Suryā” (aka Skaði), as well as the moon as governor of the tides of the sea, perhaps of the waters in a generalized sense, but even more, the moon as that which brings forth fecundity from both sea and land, the fecundator moon, hence his being called “wealthy.” He is also perhaps the moon seen as preceding the sunrise, explaining why he is father of Freyr and Freyja, Freyr considered as god of sunrise or the morning star and Freyja possibly as goddess of dawn. Thus also his setting in motion of Freyr's romance. Gullveig is the golden-yellow full moon, the moon at its most dangerous full power, who must be ritually murdered for three nights to return her to placidity. And Mímir, once again much more speculatively, would be the aspect of the magical power of wisdom residing in the moon, perhaps that aspect of the soma liquid which grants not only immortality but higher illumination as well.
Njörðr does indeed become one of the priests of the Aesir's sacrifice, while Mímir keeps his seemingly separate well, each then retaining an important possible connection to the soma. As the later Vedic Soma was himself known to be a composite deity, it may be that what we have in the Norse version with the juxtaposition of Njörðr and Mímir, along with Kvasir, is an image of three of those closely related deities of lunar and watery character who were ultimately combined into one god in the Vedic version. Mímir then would be the higher aspect god within this “Soma” composite, the dispenser of the highest possible wisdom, the aspect that would seem only capable of being Aesir in nature. And Njörðr would be that aspect of “Soma” which aligned with and fought for the lower gods, that aspect associated with the moon's "third function" powers of fecundation and wealth, who it would not be natural at first to call Aesir. Kvasir would be the embodiment of the soma liquid itself, which seems the most incontrovertible of all.
To complete this equation, then, we must of course bring in the Vedic figure Dadhyanc, who many commentators have already compared to Mímir. We have discussed two versions of the story of the Asvins' accession to the Soma sacrifice, but there is a third. In this version, the Asvins gain access to the sacrifice by inquiring it of the sage Dadhyanc. He refuses, saying that Indra will cut his head off if he tells the secret of the sacrifice. The Asvins reassure him by saying that they will first give him a horse's head, and will store his human head safely away, so that when Indra beheads him, they will have his original head ready to be put on again. The Rig Veda alludes to this story saying, “Upon Dadhyanc a horse head is placed by the Asvins, who wish to learn his knowledge (R.V.1-117-22), and the Satapatha Brahmana narrates it in more detail: "Now, Dadhyanc Atharvana knew this essence, this sacrifice – how this head of the sacrifice is put on again, how this sacrifice becomes complete" (SB 14-1-18/24). Timothy Stephany suggests once again that the horse head of Dadhyanc is another image that can be seen on the face of the moon, making the beheaded Dadhyanc, keeper of the secret of the soma, another possible lunar god, just like the beheaded Mímir, keeper of the secret of his well. As Stephany puts it, "The Horse Head came from Dadhyanc who was the possessor of the secret of the soma, the intoxicating drink known as the “well of immortality”" (Stephany, Lunar Illusions). If this is accurate, then we would have in the Indian version Dadhyanc and Chyavana in the same contrasting positions as Mímir and Njörðr, perhaps preserving the more ancient contrast of these lunar figures who eventually were combined in the later conception of the god Soma.
In this context we should also consider the myth of Svarbhanu, who drinks the Amrita, or nectar of immortality, an analog of the soma, churned from the ocean of milk, and then has his head cut off by Mohini, his still animated severed head therefter being named Rahu. This head, Rahu, was then seen as the being responsible for causing lunar eclipses and as representing the ascending moon.
However, though the comparison of Mímir with Soma here has demonstrated possible connections, we must bracket it and set it aside. Rydberg argues that Mímir overlaps with both Soma and the Vedic god of the Underworld, Yama. We take seriously the possibility that these Vedic gods could be closely aligned or even overlapping, considering the common role of the Moon god also as a lord of the underworld in ancient societies (see Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, “The Moon and Its Mystique”). Yet, as Rydberg's arguments demonstrate, Mímir may align even more with the figure of Yama than with the figure of soma, and we cannot exclude the possibility that Mímir's seeming connections to Soma could be due to some incidental overlap of these archetypes or another kind of coincidence. Lastly, modern scholarship has connected Mímir to a motif of heads in wells seen commonly, for example, in Celtic folklore and hagiography. As such, the possibility must be examined that Mímir comes from such a folklore motif or even from a local water spirit of some kind. Still, this perspective remains shallow as it fails to look for the deity underlying such folkloric or water spirit motifs. It is common that under a seemingly narrow deity of wells lies a greater divinity of water or even of the subterranean, from which the wells spring, this greater deity reaching back with its roots into the pantheon of central archaic gods. Irish Nechtan is one of many example of this principle, seemingly merely a god of a well, but shown by comparative analysis to be the same as Vedic Apam Napat, who comes from a root deity that also manifest as Roman Neptune.
Finally, as we will see in the following parts, Bragi, whose wife is a key figure in this cycle of tales and who himself narrates, will here be associated to the moon as the same figure as the Indian Gandharva, chief singer and guardian of the Soma, perhaps embodied on the material plane by the singers at the sacrifice, or the birds of morning.
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Myth Grouping 2: Freyr = Oengus
Secondly in our groupings of parallel myths, we have two figures who we have proposed to be the Northwestern European manifestations of (and this is crucial) one of the Horse Twins. Each of these figures sees a maiden, wastes away with love for her, and this is followed by the maiden being wooed for the first figure by an intermediary. This parallel compares the Norse poem Skirnismal with the Irish prose tale “Dream of Oengus,” and equates Scandinavian Freyr with Irish Oengus.
Freyr = Oengus
1.Sees Maiden From High Seat or Dream
- Freyr sees the beautiful Gerðr from the High Seat Hliðskjalf which he has sneaked onto. (Skirnismal)
- Oengus sees the beautiful Caer in a dream. (Dream of Oengus)
2.Wasting Away From Lovesickness
- Freyr wastes away from grief and claims he will soon die if he can't have Gerðr. (S)
- Oengus becomes ill after his dream and stops eating; a doctor is called. (DoO)
3.Father Intervenes to Send Assistance
- Freyr's father Njörðr tells Skirnir to go and speak to the ailing Freyr. (Intro to Skirnismal)
- Oengus' father the Dagda asks Bodb Derg to search for Caer for Aengus. (DoO)
4.Sends Intermediary Wooer
- Skirnir attempts to woo Gerðr for Freyr. (S)
- Bodb attempts to find Caer for Oengus. (DoO)
5.The Maiden is in Potentially Hostile Territory
- Gerðr is in Jotunn territory.
- Caer is in a sidhe mound which has to be attacked to bring her out.
6.Gift of Magic Sword
- Freyr gives his servant Skirnir his famous sword. (S)
- Oengus in a subsequent story gives his protege Diarmuid his famous sword. (The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne)
It will be quickly noticed that for many of the cases we are analyzing, only one Horse Twin is identifiable. This holds true for the Irish (Aengus), Scandinavian (Freyr) and Welsh (Pryderi) cases. The Vedic Asvins themselves had become so unitary that they were referred to by only this single name, and they did most everything together, acting essentially as one. In the Iranic version, this god also appears in singular form rather than a set of twins. It also appears possible that this singular form is actually more archaic than the twin form, though the question remains open. As Hartmut Scharfe observes,
only in India do we find two Nāsatyas, whereas the Avesta mentions just a single Nā̊ŋhaiθya. It seems, though, that in the latter case the Avesta is more archaic. ṚV IV 3,6 once has the name in the singular (nā́ satyāya) and once (ṚV VIII 26,8) in a dual form índra-nāsatyā “O Indra and Nāsatya,” implying a single Nāsatya.109 In the Bṛhaddevatā VII 6cd (similar Mahābhārata XII 201,17ab) we find a tradition that Nāsatya and Dasra110 are known as the two Aśvins.111 The dual nā́ satyā (ṚV I 173,4) refers to Nāsatya and his twin.
Scharfe concludes that originally the primary Horse God "Nasatya" may have been a chariot warrior, while his charioteer may have been seen as his twin, hence one of the two could have gained much more prominence than the other in certain branches. The charioteer could never have been recognized or could have been pushed aside. In the Greek case, only one of the two Dioskouri is fully divine, and thus one is again more important than the other. They too are called by a unifying moniker, the Dioskouri. In the Roman legend that Dumezil shows to be equivalent to the Aesir-Vanir War, that is the Rape of the Sabine women, a single figure, Titus Tatius, stands in for the Horse Twins. We can theorize that in the Celtic and Germanic cases, either the second Horse Twin never developed, became seen as unimportant and was pushed aside, or that he became absorbed into the dominant Horse Twin, or again that the second Twin simply hasn't been clearly identified as of yet, possibly even being demoted to a secondary character in the mythology. We can’t even rule out the possibility that the prominent single Horse God is the more archaic form, as the singular Avestan version appears more archaic than the twinned Vedic version, though this is likely impossible to know. It even seems possible that in the Welsh case the second twin may have become, or been seen as, the first twin’s horse: Pryderi is born the same night as a horse, is raised alongside this horse, and the horse becomes Pryderi’s when they are grown. In general we should remember, of course, that a twin is no less a twin when the other twin is not present, so we will continue to use this well-recognized name of “Horse Twin.” Ultimately, it seems that, whereas the Vedic twins were primarily known by the title “the Sons of God” (whether of Father Sky or of the Sun), and as ever youthful, the Western European cases were instead characterized by the the epithet "The Young Son" (Mabon, Mac Occ) -- the divine Sons simply became the divine Son, but their status as every youthful divine sons remained absolutely central to their nomenclature and identity.
Having increased our understanding of the web of Horse Twin tales we have examined thus far, we must further assess the parallels which bring Oengus and Freyr into this Soma cycle, as the Northwestern European representatives of the Horse Twins.
Horse Twins: Oengus and Freyr
Based on his study of the Horse Twins motif throughout Europe, the scholar Michael Shapiro (“Neglected Evidence of Dioscurism (Divine Twinning) in the Old Slavic Pantheon”) enumerates a series of characteristics common to the Horse Twins.
- They are sons of the Sky god
- They are brothers of the sun maiden and somehow related to the Sun god
- Association with horses
- Dual paternity
- Saviors at sea
- Astral nature
- Magic healers
- Warriors and providers of divine aid in battle
- Divinities of fertility
- Association with swans
- Divinities of dance
- Closeness to human beings
- Protectors of the oath
- Assisting at birth
- Founders of cities
To which we add other important traits based on the Vedic Asvins:
16. Swordsmen
17. Great intelligence
18. Always portrayed as youthful
19.Vanity over their own beauty, which they may even “die” from
- May be denied the drink of immortality only to earn it later
- Counselors
The Irish deity Oengus Og checks nearly every one of these boxes. His foster father Midir seems to fulfill a few himself; however, this is most likely only due to coincidence or overlap of motifs, as Midir’s true identity is much more clearly the Moon god.
- Oengus is the son of the Dagda, who is either the primordial sky god or a god who has inherited that role.
- Brigid, the Dawn Goddess, is another one of Dagda's children, making Oengus not brother of a sun maiden, but brothers of the Dawn Goddess, who is frequently conflated with the sun maiden. However, Mircea Eliade points out that the Asvins are actually “always represented at the side of a feminine divinity, either Usa, goddess of Dawn, or Surya,” and thus the variability between sun maiden and Dawn Goddess is insignificany. Ceisiwr Serith has pointed out how Dawn Goddess and Daughter of the Sun were frequently conflated or confused as well.
- Oengus is referred to as “horseman” in “The Fosterage of the House of the Two Pails” – “Aengus Og, son of the Dagda/is a horseman, is a sailor” (Fosterage). In addition, one of the best known myths in which he appears involves him helping in the wooing of the Horse Goddess Etain. Etain is known sometimes by the epithet “horse rider.” In the Dindshenchas, a poem called “Tuag Inber” is related in which Oengus provides Eochu and Ablend a swift horse while they are encamped with their cattle. He tells them to unbridle the horse in a meadow before it “sheds its water” and causes their deaths. Oengus' foster father is sometimes said to be Elcmar, who in the Dindshenchas is also called “lord of horses.” Horses connect with Oengus' genealogy at every turn.
- Dual or unclear paternity cannot be linked to Oengus on his own, but may have become attached to Oengus and Midir. In some versions both are made the sons of Dagda, thus closely linking them and making them brothers. Yet in other versions Midir is said to be the son of Indui, and Oengus to be his foster son.
- As the Horse Twins are known as saviors at sea, so Oengus may be interpreted as a protector at sea. As previously mentioned, he is called a “sailor,” and it is further stated that “if thou repeatest the 'Nourishing' [the poem about Oengus and Eithne] going on a ship or vessel thou shalt go safe and sound, wave or billows” (Fosterage). This is a tentative identification, as several other domains besides sea voyages are mentioned in succession, and the poem is referred also to Eithne.
- The astral nature of Oengus is less clear on a surface reading, but comes into view only after understanding his divine identity via parallels in other branches.
- In some legends Oengus is depicted as a magic healer who can repair injured bodies and return life to dead ones. When his foster son Diarmuid died, he would breathe life into his body whenever he wanted to speak to him. (The Vedic Asvins raise up the dead man Rebha in RV 10.39.9, and do similarly for Bhujyu in 1.119.4)
- Oengus was indeed known as a warrior, called by a name meaning “of the battle squadrons” (Dindshenchas), and another meaning “expert in arms” – “the host of Aengus were distressed. I and Aengus, expert in arms, a pair whose hidden mystery had not its like” (Fosterage). Oengus is also called by names meaning “mighty and stern” and “red armed” (Dindshenchas), seeming to describe the appearance of a bloody warrior.
- With regard to fertility, Oengus is colloquially known as a god of love and beauty. His primary legends concern tales of love and wooing, and he is the one who arranges for Etain to marry Midir (before she is transformed by Fuamnach). His portrayal as ever-youthful and his name meaning “young” strengthens his connection to love tales and fertility. In “The Fosterage of the House of the Two Pails” it is said of him that “Aengus enjoined noble marriage on all in general,” suggesting that his role of arranging Midir's marriage was no fluke, but that encouraging or arranging marriages was a stable trait of the god. In addition, a later colloquial tradition developed in which it was said that “His kisses became birds that hovered invisibly over young men and women, whispering thoughts of love in their ears” (Celtic Myth and Legend, Charles Squire 1905).
- Association with Swans – Oengus is said to have four swans that circle over his head when he travels. When he finds Caer at the lake of the Dragon's mouth, he discovers that she and the other girls there would turn into swans for one year every second Samhain. He has to identify Caer in her swan form from among the other swan maidens, and when he does he turns himself into a swan as well and flies away with her. In the end of “Wooing of Etain” in which Oengus heavily features, when Midir wins his final wager with Eochu and is allowed to embrace Etain, Midir turns himself and Etain into swans and they fly away together.
- If Oengus and Midir had any particular associations with dance it is not clear; however, Oengus is a famous harper and plays the people to sleep with his harp at the end of Dream of Oengus.
- Being associated primarily with the very human activity of love, while also being foster father of the seemingly human figure Diarmuid, demonstrates Oengus' particular closeness to human beings.
- A tenuous connection to oaths may be that Oengus is sometimes said to be the foster son of Elcmar, who some claim to be Nuada by another name, and who was associated with justice. Elcmar is said to be a “judge” in the Dindshenchas. Oengus' other foster father Midir's name likewise is said to possibly come from the Old Irish word for a judge, midithir. The repeated association of judges with Oengus, both of his suggested foster fathers bearing the association, may suggest a role relating to the upholding of justice. Even when Oengus craftily tricks his father out of Bru na Boinne it is by forcing him to hold to the technical letter of the agreement, a bit like telling him he should have read the fine print.
- Oengus does have an association with birth, found again in “The Fosterage.” This text states: “Aengus said to him... 'your wife is pregnant and whatever child is born I receive to bring up and educate...Manannan went away to his fort and the time came and the wife bore the fruit of her womb, a shapely lovely daughter with a tip of curly yellow-coloured hair on her head...She was given to Aengus to bring up and educate and daughters of other rulers of her own age along with her” (Fosterage).
- Oengus' role in founding cities is unclear.
- Oengus was certainly a swordsman, and owned a famous sword named “Mortallach,” meaning The Great Fury, gifted to him by Manannan and passed along to Diarmuid along with another named Little Fury.
- Intelligence is no less a common theme in his legends than love. Oengus famously used cunning to trick either Elcmar or the Dagda out of their burial mounds.
- As mentioned previously, Oengus Og's name includes the title “Og,” meaning “young,” and another of his names is the Mac(can) Oc, or the “young son.” His association with youth is ever present and is a part of his identity. He seems to be eternally youthful.
- While the incarnations of the Horse Twins in the Mahabharata, Nakula and Sahadeva, die of vanity over their own beauty, Oengus too is associated strongly with beauty. Oengus is known colloquially as a god of beauty and it is his foster son Diarmuid who has the “love spot” on his face making anyone fall in love with him upon sight.
- As the Asvins do not start as true immortal gods, but only later attain the drink of immortality, it is similarly said in a 12th Century text that Aengus Og drank a drink of immortality at Goibniu's feast (Colloquy of the Ancients).
- As Sahadeva is the counselor of the Pandavas, so Oengus cleverly counsels Dagda on how to get rid of the satirist Cridenbel during the reign of Bres. Oengus then advises Dagda to select a dark, trained, spirited heifer as payment for his work, which ends up calling all the cattle of Ireland to it.
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Freyr's Horse Twin Characteristics
Does Freyr then match any of these common Horse Twin elements? He is brother to the centrally important (possibly Dawn) goddess Freyja, just as Aengus is brother of the centrally important Dawn goddess Brigid. A full explication of the theory that Freyja could be the Dawn goddess is beyond our scope and was first suggested by Angriff along with Redbeard, to be elaborated in the future. Our framework does not rely on Freyja necessarily being the Dawn goddess, as it is perfectly possible for a different goddess to be in this same role in the Norse myths without disrupting the overall structure. We merely leave open the very real possibility that Freyja will be shown on a deeper level to have a connection to the mythos usually attached to the Dawn goddess. Among other things, Angriff points to the shining necklace brisingamen which is stolen from Freyja, and which would occupy the same position as the “golden glow of Dawn and Sovereignty” or “Khvarenah” that we discuss elsewhere, which in other branches is embodied by the stolen, adulterous goddess who must be retrieved by the Mitraic god or hero. Other evidence brought forward by Angriff includes the fact that the tears of Greek Dawn Goddess Eos form the morning dew, Irish Dawn Goddess Brigid first invents keening when she weeps for her dead son, and that Freyja is said to cry tears of red-gold, the color of the sunrise. She is said to have two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi, whose names are variations on the meaning “treasure,” while Vedic Ushas is said to be she who is “rich in spoil,” “wondrously opulent,” and who “rules all wealth and treasures” (RV 7.75.5-6). It is also interesting that, in the same verse, Ushas is called “consumer of our youth,” while Freyja is known as “posessor of the slain” (Skaldskaparmal, 20). Ushas is “a skilled huntress who wastes away the lives of people” in RV 1.92, and is “a constant reminder of people's limited time on earth” (RV 7.77) (David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses, 6-8). We see the theme of adultery and promiscuity in the figure of Helen, while it also is present in Freyja's mythos. One must wonder where the Norse cognate of this central Indo-European goddess, the Dawn goddess, would otherwise have gone if she is not Freyja, as certainly no better candidate presents herself. Freyr is close to everyday human concerns like weddings, the generation of fecundity, the harvest, and general prosperity, suggesting a third-function nature in line with that of the Horse Twins. He is a god of fertility, as can be seen from his famous ithyphallic idol from Broddenbjerg, Jutland (535-520 BCE), and Adam of Bremen's description of “Frikko,” another name for Freyr. As is typical for Horse Twins, he is associated with sailing, being the owner of the famous ship Skíðblaðnir, which always has a favorable wind and is known as the best of all ships. This ship was made for him by the alfar smiths known as The Sons of Ivaldi (Grimnismal 43), while the Asvins' vehicle was made for them by the semidivine smiths known as the Rbhus (RV.1.20.3; 1.161.6;10.39.12). The Sons of Ivaldi and the Rbhus can be confidently identified as they have been shown to share a parallel myth designated “The Contest of the Artists,” wherein they must compete with other craftsmen. In the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, Ing, a version of the original name of Freyr, is said to go “over the wave,” with his wagon following after. Freyr was also connected with a horse cult, and kept sacred horses at Thrandheim. His own horse is named Blóðughófi, meaning “bloody hoof,” and he is referred to as Atriði, meaning “rider.” In Lokasenna verse 37 he is called best of all “ball-riða,” an unclear term often translated as “brave riders.” In the Rig Veda, one of the Asvins is even addressed with the title surih, which can translate to several things including "lord" (Rig Veda, I.181), while Freyr's very name is simply a title meaning "lord."
Freyr is a warrior, known to do battle with Surtr at Ragnarok. In Skirnismal he is called folkvaldi goda, meaning 'commander of the gods in battle.’ These epithets remind us of Aengus, also a commander “of the battle squadrons,” who is “expert in arms” as Freyr is “battle-skilled,” and who is “red armed” while Freyr's horse is bloody-hoofed. As we have said in another chapter, the Horse Twins maintained a consistent connection to warrior skill, this association being brought to perhaps its highest point in Greece and Rome, with the Spartan army carrying the dόkana, symbol of the Twins, before them during war. The Dioscuri were beloved by the Roman cavalry, and were said to have lead the legions of the commonwealth in the battle of Lake Regillus as their commanders. While Freyr has the golden-bristled boar Gullinbursti, which is said to be his fylgja and which is fashioned for him by the dwarves, the proposed Greek Horse Twin incarnation Diomedes' golden armor (blessed by Athena) and sword are both said to have on them the image of a boar. So close is the boar associated with Freyr, that sacrifices to him during the harvest festival took this form. Thus Diomedes is the horse-breaker who wears the boar symbol. The Asvins, though known as horsemen, are also centrally depicted as riding “humped cattle,” as Eliade points out, referencing R. Otto (Eliade, Patterns, 97; R. Otto, Gottheit d. Arier, 76).
While the scholar Shapiro calls the Horse Twins founders of cities, and while Hengist and Horsa, for instance, actually do not found Kent but take it over and become the root of its Freyr or Ingvi-Freyr is known as the founder of various tribes and royal lines: the Ingvaeones, the Ynglings, etc. Even Freyr being given the gift of Alfheimr has a vague similarity to Aengus' inheritance (by trickery) of the great burial mound and otherworld locale Brugh na Boinne. And of course, originating as a Vanir and outsider to the society of the Aesir but eventually joining the Aesir and becoming one of the most revered gods parallels the Asvins' ascent to godhood via the attaining of the soma and the joining of the society of the higher gods with Chyavana's help. Just as the Horse Twins commonly begin as a lower rank of divinity, but gain equality with the higher gods and gain access to the sacrifice, so Freyr (with Njörðr) becomes a part of the community of the Aesir after the Aesir-Vanir war, and likewise becomes priest of the sacrifice. As we have demonstrated, this myth is perhaps the central myth of the Horse Twins generally, and the fact of Freyr's central role in it is a strong argument in itself for Freyr's identification as a Horse Twin. This structural argument combined with the many Horse Twin characteristics enumerated above makes the identification difficult to deny.
The Fathers of the Horse Twins
Both of the proposed Scandinavian and Irish Horse Twin gods, Aengus and Freyr, are similar in the particular nature of their close relationships with their fathers as well. We know that Freyr is the son of Njörðr, a god who, like the Dagda, father of the Irish Horse Twin Aengus, is associated with wind and with the fertility of the land. While Njörðr and the Dagda are not the same gods, we can see the similarities between them that caused them to be given the same roles in the wooing tales in relation to their respective sons. In the wooing tales, the Dagda and Njörðr each have the very same role of setting things in motion like a presiding paternal force. From the very beginning of Skirnismal we read, “Skirnir was the name of Freyr's servant; Njörðr bade him ask speech of Freyr” (Skirnismal). It is Njörðr who initiates the main action of the poem, in the prose introduction, involving the crucial servant Skirnir in the story and giving him the task of speaking to Freyr in his lovesickness. After that, this father figure steps out of the poem. “Dream of Oengus” likewise begins with the intervention of the father, the Dagda. After relating how Oengus saw Caer in a dream, fell lovesick and was tended to by a doctor, the tale next describes how they brought the Dagda in for help. “'No help has been found for him,' said Boand. 'Then send for the Dagdae, and let him come and speak with his son'” (Dream of Oengus). Whereas Njörðr sends the servant Skirnir to speak with and aid Freyr, the Dagda is sent by Boand to speak to and aid Oengus. Then Dagda in his turn sends Bodb Dearg to search for the girl. In each tale, Njörðr or the Dagda acts as the ruling fatherly presence, setting things in motion and helping Freyr, Aengus or Midir, usually by sending an intermediary helper but also (in Dagda’s case) by direct interventions.
As the paternalistic “old man” figure in his myth, Indian Chyavana also stands in a similar position to the Asvins as Njörðr does to Freyr. Chyavana is an aged man and the final transformation in the water renews his youth and beauty. For Njörðr, the water (of his ocean home) has only made his feet appear young and beautiful. He has not truly become like to the god Baldr, but nonetheless has been imparted a youthful appearance by the waters.
The central key to the comparison of these father-son relationships, however, is the realization that it is Aengus’ foster father who is the true direct cognate of Freyr’s father. As has been demonstrated, Midir, foster father of Aengus, has the very same mythos as Njörðr, that mythos we have designated by its Rig Vedic name “Surya’s Bridal,” the marriage of the “Soma” moon god and the daughter of the sun. Thus, although the Dagda himself overlaps with Midir and Njörðr, it is Aengus' role as foster son of Midir that shows most clearly his parallel with Freyr, son of Njörðr. Both the Norse and Irish branches have the same moon god as either father or foster father of the Horse Twin, and this fact needs to be seen clearly.
What this shows is that there was somewhat of a controversy in Northwestern Europe about who the true father of the 'Divine Son' Horse Twin was, whether Moon God or Father Sky. From an astrological perspective this may come down to the fact that, as the morning star or sunrise god, the 'Divine Son' Horse Twin could be viewed as the son of the moon (due to succeeding it in the sky or due to rising out of the sea that is its domain) or as the son of Father Sky, first appearing, as it does, lighting up the vault of heaven in early morning. Perhaps the comparison of the Irish and Norse cases can be taken as evidence that these two fathers may have been seen as sharing this parentage in a metaphysical sense, one as the Horse Twin’s foster father, one as his true father, and that the Celtic and Germanic branches ultimately came to slightly different conclusions as to which father was believed to have primacy. Aengus does not even know his true parentage until he eventually forces Midir to tell him. This means that, until he is a young man, Aengus, cognate of Freyr, believes or lives as if he is the son of Midir, cognate of Njörðr. We must also note as a matter of curiosity, without drawing any conclusions or considering it important to our overall argument, that Yngvi-Freyr is called a son of Oðinn in Snorri's Prologue to Gylfaginning, and that this parentage of Yngvi-Freyr occurs again in some manuscripts of the Skaldskaparmal. This parentage is usually simply ignored as incorrect, seen to be contradicting the many other descriptions of Freyr as son of Njörðr. However, if the Norse case were to mirror or even come from the same root as the Irish, the possibility would have to remain open that these mentions, though highly dubious for multiple reasons, could preserve a remnant of a tradition regarding Freyr that had been mostly forgotten: that he was son of both Oðinn and Njorðr, that his true father was originally Oðinn, but that, like Aengus, he was raised without this knowledge, considered officially as the son of Njorðr. This could explain why Freyr, a Horse Twin god, is not depicted as son of a Sky Father while the other instances of this god are, and why his “father” Njorðr very clearly parallels Aengus' foster father, Midir. It is not necessary that this be true, however, for these deities to be considered parallels, as the two traditions could have simply diverged in the consideration of this parentage.
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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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The Welsh "Aesir-Vanir War"
In the next portion of the Mabinogion, Pryderi also fights a war very reminiscent of the Norse Aesir-Vanir war. Gwydion desires a pretext to cause Math to go to war, and also desires the otherworldly swine belonging to Pryderi. So Gwydion offers in exchange for the swine a great deal of enchanted fungus that he has temporarily turned into dogs, war horses, and shields. Pryderi accepts the deceptive trade, and we should be reminded of the deceptive deal made in the similar circumstance by the Irish Horse Twin Aengus to win Brugh na Boinne, only the Horse Twin Pryderi has here become the dupe. "And they consulted together, and determined to give the swine to Gwydion, and to take his horses and his dogs and his shields," we read, and the third function quality of the swine is here placed in clear contrast to the war horses, dogs and shields -- symbols of the higher, warrior function -- exchanged for them. Gwydion is, at least in part, one of the first function gods himself, the central Oðinnic magician god of the Welsh pantheon, and father of the chief god of sovereignty and justice Lleu, and so the war that ensues, of the forces of the Horse Twin Pryderi with the forces of Gwydion and Math, is perfectly in line with the war of Freyr's tribe with Oðinn's and the ultimate integration of the third function qualities of the Vanir into the society of the higher gods. There is even a hostage exchange at the conclusion of the war between Pryderi and Gwydion's forces, just as there is a hostage exchange at the conclusion of the Aesir-Vanir war. We read, "And that he might have peace, Pryderi gave hostages, Gwrgi Gwastra gave he and three-and-twenty others, sons of nobles." In this Welsh version, the peace falls apart however, and Pryderi is subsequently killed in a duel with Gwydion. However, the swine of Pryderi, symbols of the third function power, even said to have come from the underworld Annwn itself, the underworld commonly seen as the source of fecundating powers, have already been taken and integrated by Gwydion into the society of higher gods, thereby perfecting the divine social order.
In fact, it is quite incredible how closely this form of the myth matches that found in the Roman pseudo-historical account given by Livy, that is "the Rape of the Sabine Women." The Romans, led by Romulus (first function, parallel of Oðinn/Gwydion), desire wives, so they trick their neighboring tribes, including the Sabines, and steal their women to marry. This incites a war, which results in a stalemate and a truce, the outcome of which is that the Sabines, who possess the women and wealth symbolic of fertility and production (third function) are integrated into the Roman society, which is characterized by its warrior-priestly quality (second and first functions). Romulus and the king of the Sabines, Titus Tatius (parallel of Freyr/Pryderi), agree to share the rulership. However, after a short period, Titus is killed by Romulus' men. But the Sabines and their women have already been integrated into Roman society, the third function has already been integrated into the society of the higher functions. The most interesting and humorous realization while comparing the Roman and Welsh versions, along with how strikingly similar they are, is the fact that, in the Welsh version, the Swine of the Underworld take the identical position taken by the Sabine Women in the Roman version.
The Horse Goddess and the Daughters of the Sun
One important issue must be addressed regarding the various fair maidens before proceeding with a further explication of the details of the Welsh case. Most of these maidens or princesses have at least a possible solar significance: Tapati meaning “hot,” and being the daughter of the Sun god Vivasvat; Skaði being called “shining”; Iðunn having the possibly solar golden apples; it being said of Gerðr that "Her arms glittered, and from their gleam/Shone all the sea and sky"; Cigfa being daughter of “fair shining one.” Caer Ibormeith means “yew berry,” and considering what we have seen it seems prudent to interpret this in terms of the solar symbolism of the Yew tree: the Yew tree was the primary source of wood for archer's bows in Northwest Europe, archery being a prime symbol of solar activity. Thus, as we have seen, Norse Ullr is the archery god who lives at the Yew Dales, among the trees that are his symbol. Yew being a symbol for the power of the sun, a yew berry then could be a poetic symbol of a ray or drop of sun, a berry dropped from the solar tree. The red color of the yew berry can reinforce its solar quality.
Now, our argument does not necessarily rely on these princesses being sun princesses in every case, as it is absolutely possible for a god to marry a sun princess in one branch and a different goddess in a separate branch, but some strong remnants of the sun princess motif should appear here or there, and we believe we have pointed to enough to make it plausible that these could be mostly solar goddesses. However, figures such as Etain and Rhiannon seem much more closely tied to horse motifs, either in their myths, in their names, or both -- Etain being called Etain Echraide, or Etain of the Horses, Rhiannon appearing first on her magical horse, having a son the same night that a horse is born, being condemned to carry visitors on her back like a horse, and being forced to wear a donkey's collar when she is imprisoned in the other world. This seems to present a slight difficulty to some of our proposed equations on first glance; however, these equations can be justified.
As Proto-Indo-European reconstructionist Ceisiwr Serith points out, the Horse Goddess Ɂéḱwonā and the Daughter(s) of the Sun (reconstructed as Sawelyosyo Dhugətḗr) frequently overlapped and were even identified (Serith, “Proto-Indo-European Deities,” “Ɂéḱwonā”). Though they may originally have been distinct goddesses in the Proto-Indo-European era, by the time of the written myths they were almost wholly conflated. Indeed, the image of Rhiannon riding the modestly ambling horse that cannot be caught up to should be enough of an image of the sun in the sky to demonstrate how these two symbols came to be equated, and in many other cases the horse was used as a solar symbol. As Serith puts it, “Ɂéḱwonā overlaps the sun goddess Sawelyosyo Dhugətḗr somewhat to the point that in some of the later descendant traditions they have become identified with each other. Sawelyosyo Dhugətḗr is connected with horses (especially through the Diwós Sūnú [Divine Twins]), and Ɂéḱwonā is described with solar imagery. Remember Saraṇyū. Ɂéḱwonā is particularly solar in her power and the danger of approaching her. In Proto-Indo-European times, they seem to have been different goddesses, though” (Ceisiwr Serith).
The connection of the Samvarana/Tapati or Pwyll/Rhiannon myth to the Horse Twin myth can then be explained by the fact that Tapati and Sukanya (whose true name is Suryā) are sisters (presented as being of different generations descended from the sun god, which we take to indicate that Sukanya is an incarnation of the previously mentioned daughter of the sun, Suryā), both, at their root, daughters of the Sun god, who furthermore could easily have been identified or confused with one another, or simply have been considered as figures linked by their sisterhood and whose wooing tales as a result were seen as parallel and connected. And thus, Rhiannon/Iðunn, Etain/Skaði, and Cigfa/Caer/Gerðr, though having different mythic origins and not necessarily depicted as sisters, can be considered in this same sense as sisters on a hypothetical more archaic level, participating in parallel and linked myths. This also explains how these seemingly separate myths can have come together around the Celtic Holy Grail legend, blended together, as we will see later.
This general understanding can perhaps be strengthened by the recent research of William Reaves, who has demonstrated that Olvaldi, father of Thjazi, and Ivaldi, father of Iðunn, are likely the same figure, making Thjazi and Iðunn potentially half-siblings. "Idun and her sisters are Alfar," says Reaves, and just like Aengus' bride Caer, "They appear as swan maidens...accustomed to warmth and light" (Reaves, Idunn and the Elves, The Epicist 3, 44). Hence Iðunn, Skaði, and – as we argue – Thjazi are all solar figures who are of one semi-nuclear family, all are either jotuns or kin of jotuns, and Gerðr is another jotunn whose arms make sea and sky shine. Clearly "jotunn" was a designation often given to beings associated with the sometimes a-social powers of the astral bodies such as sun and moon. While Iðunn would here be presented as the aunt of Skaði (as Tapati is the great-great-aunt of Sukanya, extra generations likely added to indicate that Sukanya is a mortal incarnation), and these two as having no clear link to the other solar giantess Gerðr, we must remember that on a deeper metaphysical level they may come from a shared mythos of solar "sisters," due to being sun princesses, goddesses of the sunbeams.
It is clear that, perhaps due to this relatively interchangeable nature of the daughters of the sun, the Horse Twin myth and the Gandharva myth somehow became entwined into one tale in the branches of the Welsh Mabinogion, with the proposed Gandharva Pwyll and the Horse Twin Pryderi appearing now as father and son in one shared narrative, whereas their myths are somewhat separated in the other branches. The entwining of these tales reaches its peak in the Grail legend, where the wasteland of the Samvarana/Pwyll "Gandharva" myth is a prominent feature of the larger legend that centers around the Horse Twin hero Perceval.
To complete the set of Sun Princesses, we note that the Irish god of Eloquence, Ogma, who in a later chapter we will demonstrate is the cognate of the Gandharva, Hermes, Pwyll, and Bragi, marries a woman named Etan. If the mythic structure we are laying out holds, this Etain is none other than Etain, transferred from one husband to another, just as one of the Sun Princesses almost always is (Skaði, Rhiannon, Surya).
Manannan and Agni
There is nothing in particular in all of this to suggest that Njörðr, Pwyll, or Manawydan are themselves Horse Twins, as has sometimes been suggested, and these theories, which lack the fuller context, must be put aside. Instead, we can draw an interesting connection between the advisor of Samvarana, Vasistha and the friend and helper of Pryderi, Manawydan. In the portion of the myth where Samvarana/Pryderi occupies the sacred mountain improperly, leading to a wasteland, it is Vasistha in the one tale, and Manawydan in the other, who must then bring Samvarana or Pryderi back to their kingdoms to break the enchantment and revive the land. Interestingly, at this time Manawydan has become husband to the previously wooed wife of the now dead Pwyll -- that is, Rhiannon. If we consider again the hymn to "Suryā's Bridal," a possible link between Manawydan/Vasistha and the god Agni then comes into view. For, at the end of the hymn, we read that Suryā, the daughter of the sun, had a series of husbands, just as Rhiannon has now had two husbands in succession. The hymn states:
40 Soma obtained her first of all; next the Gandharva was her lord. Agni was thy third husband: now one born of woman is thy fourth. 41 Soma to the Gandharva, and to Agni the Gandharva gave (Rig Veda, 10.85.40-41).
Though it is possible the hymn is merely conflating various sun princesses here into one figure, and while some may say that this cryptic passage shouldn’t be extended too far or taken too literally, it must be said that Manawydan and his Irish form Manannan do have characteristics that can be interpreted in line with the fire-priest god Agni, as does Vasistha. Manawydan and Manannan are each said to be the son of the sea, while Agni is called “child of the waters.” Vasistha is said to be reborn from Varuna, who himself is a god identified with all water. Additionally, Vasistha goes as emissary to Vivasvat-Surya for Samvarana to request the Sun god’s daughter for Samvarana while Samvarana worships the sun god for 12 days straight, similar to how Agni is the emissary to the gods, carrying the sacrifice to them by burning it and rising into the sky. Again when Samvarana has stayed too long on the sacred mountain and has neglected his sacrifices, it is Vasistha's task to go as emissary to retrieve him and remind him of these sacrificial duties.
It seems clear that Vasistha in this myth is a stand-in for some god or other, for he takes the exact role the god Manawydan does in the Welsh myth. And not only does Agni follow Soma and the Gandharva in wedding the sun princess in the hymn, just as Manawydan follows Pwyll in marrying Rhiannon, but it is also said that at Soma and Suryā's wedding, “Agni was leader of the train.” Besides the Horse Twins, the wooers Chyavana and Samvarana, the princesses, and their fathers, there are almost no other figures that appear in the Indian forms of these wooing tales besides Vasistha. And he appears in an assisting capacity perfectly fitting one who would lead the train at the wedding, the primary priest and advisor of Samvarana as he is, just as Agni is priest of the sacrificial fire.
So: beginning with the potential correspondence of Vasistha to Agni as described in the "Suryā's Bridal" hymn, and then the correspondence of Vasistha to Manawydan based on their occupying the same role in parallel tales, then of Manawydan to his cognate Manannan, we can begin to investigate the possibility that Manawydan/Manannan is also the same figure as Vedic Agni.
There are multiple similarities that can carry this comparison. First, Manannan and Manawydan are commonly called Manannan mac y Leir and Manawydan fab Llyr -- that is, this god's status as son of the sea god Lir/Llyr is generally so important that it is made a part of his very name. As for Agni, he is frequently associated with waters, so much so that the epithet Apam Napat, meaning descendent or nephew of waters, is numerically most often attached to him in the Rig Veda. This could then imply the same relationship that “mac Lir” does for Manannan. Agni is said to be mysterious, even to playfully hide in the waters and other places. The fish are said to report news of his presence to the gods. Agni is said to be twice or thrice born: from water, in the air, and on Earth, signifying the different forms fire may take. The idea that he was first born from water was the result of a complex understanding of the nature of fire, a belief that fire was contained (lived) in water and arose from it (was born of it), entering back into it when doused. "In the waters, Agni, is your abode, you climb up in the shrubs," says the Rig Veda. Varuna places "the will in the heart, the Agni in the water and the sun in the sky" and Herman Oldenberg explains that
The water comes down from the ‘highest father’, the heaven; the plants suck their food from the rain and from the water of the earth…The plants are indeed the ‘first-born essence of waters’, ‘water is their nature’. Therefore, the power must have remained latent in water, and it breaks forth as fire from the wood of the plants. If the fire then returns to the heaven as smoke, i.e. as cloud, the circle is completed…’The same water goes up and down in the course of the day: the downpour (of rains) swells the earth; the flames of Agni swell the heaven’ (I, 164, 51). (Oldenberg, Religion of the Vedas, 65)
Second, Agni is primarily known as a priest and emissary between the sacrifice and the gods, as the flames and smoke rise to the sky, but he just as much is said to be a psychopomp, conveying the souls of the dead to the afterlife or to rebirth, as the flames and smoke rise from the funeral pyre. Manannan is centrally seen as a psychopomp as well, carrying the souls of the dead to the Land of Promise. This is perhaps why he was associated with the Eastern isle of Man, the land of the dead seen as over the waves and to the East of Ireland. Agni himself is worshipped in the Southeast corner of temples, and known as the guardian of this direction, due to this same psychopomp concept. Connected with this role of fire priest and psychopomp, Agni is said to be a wise sage, as Manannan too is wise and versed in magic.
Third, Agni remains extremely central to marriage rites to this day, while in “The Fosterage of the House of Two Pails,” Manannan is connected with marriage as well as birth and fosterage, and is in this text said to take over the responsibility for all marriages. In “The Conception of Mongan,” Manannan takes on an active role in conceiving the child Mongan upon a mortal couple.
Fourth, Agni was, from earliest records, considered a lord of three spheres and three corresponding forms. These were the forms of fire, lightning, and the Sun, and the corresponding spheres of earth, air, and the Sun, or earth, air and heaven, alternately. Having these three forms, Agni was said correspondingly to have three legs, and is frequently depicted thus. Manannan is famously said to have three legs as well, on which he rolls across the ground like a wheel. Alternately, in some late folktales he is followed by a mysterious three-legged, rolling creature.
Manannán sometimes takes the form of a wheel rolling across the ground, as in"Pursuit of the Gilla Decair" from the 16th-century. Lore of the Isle of Man and some eastern Counties of Leinster (according to John O'Donovan) says that Manannán rolled about on three legs. The depiction of him as a three-legged being is clearly connected to the hazy origin of the three-legged triskele symbol that is the flag of the Isle of Man, Manannan’s eponymous island. This would imply that the triskele could symbolize fire in its three births: earthly fire, lightning, and the sun — the vital, fiery essence of the cosmos in its three manifestations.
Fifth, Agni is in more than one place shown to shape-shift in order to test humans. Once, he tested King Shiba in the form of a pigeon, the king passing the test and proving his selfless virtue. He also witnesses the Agniparishka fire test, which Sita of the Ramayana was subjected to, also a test of virtue. Examples of trial by fire abound particularly in the Iranic tradition. In Avestan it is called garmo-varah, heat ordeal (cf. Boyce 1996:ch. 6), and in the text of the Avesta, blazing fire is the instrument through which justice is decided (Yasna 31.3, 34.4, 36.2, 47.2, 31.19, 51.9). Boyce points out that, "there are said to have been some 30 kinds of fiery tests in all" (Boyce, 2002:1). In the Vendidad violating truth is tested and detected by drinking a kind of “blazing” water (fire in water), which may have had brimstone or sulphur in it. Trial by fire was used in ancient Persia as a judicial tool, either requiring the accused to pass through fire or to have molten metal poured on their chest. In the comparable Hindu agniparishka fire test, the accused would have to sit on a burning pyre and survive. A similar test survives in the Indian Sansi tribe, where women's purity is tested by having to carry burning embers in their hands for a hundred yards. Manannan too is a shapeshifter and a tester with perhaps the same hidden underlying meaning, appearing as a beggar or cleric or some other unassuming being to beguile or aid humans. This trait became central to his depiction in medieval tales, which focused on his wily and trickster-like exploits, such as his bringing Cormac mac Airt to the otherworld and tempting and testing him with otherworldly gifts, including a cup that judges truth and falsity (His Three Calls to Cormac) as Agni judges virtue.
Sixth, Manannan is also closely associated with the three gods of crafts, Goibniu and his two brothers, but is not one of them. Yet he does himself produce or distribute many of the famous treasures and weapons of the Tuatha de Danann. He presides over Goibniu's feast and commissions a shield from the craft god Lucra, and also crafts the magical crane bag. This close association with crafts and weapon making, despite not being the blacksmith god or one of the main craft gods himself, only seems logical when Manannan is seen as the god of fire, fire being the necessary companion of craft work and blacksmithing. He is said to have a red spear and a yellow spear, perhaps repeating the colors of fire.
Seventh, Manannan is also depicted as overseeing the great Feast of Age, which keeps the gods immortal, and this association may be due either to the necessity of fire for cooking food, or, more likely, simply from the fact that fire conveys the food of the gods up to them from the burnt sacrifice. In the conception of the Vedic sacrifice, the god of fire directly serves the life-bringing offerings to the gods.
It likely will be objected that, despite all these possible connections, Manannan seems not to have been depicted with fire itself. However, this is not true. During the narrative of The Wooing of Etain, it is said that Manannan was known, in one tradition, to have killed Midir and Fuamnach by burning. It is in fact relatively rare to find fire used as an offensive weapon in Celtic myth, and so this instance stands out. Another significant instance occurs at the beginning of "The Adventures of Art, son of Conn," wherein the Tuatha de Danann are in council deciding what to do with the wife of Labraid Luathlam-ar-Claideb, who has committed a "transgression" with Manannan's son. The punishments debated are for the woman "to be driven forth from the Land of Promise" or "to be burned according to the counsel of Manannan." In the end, Manannan says not to burn her, "lest her guilt should cleave to the land or to themselves" (The Adventures of Art, son of Conn). It is certainly noteworthy that Manannan is seen here as the decider of whether to execute a criminal by fire, just as he kills Fuamnach (and Midir, seemingly) with fire himself. The fear that the woman's guilt will "cleave" to the land seems to be a fascinating glimpse into an ancient understanding of how guilt may be spread via an execution by flame.
Manannan is colloquially believed to be a god of the sea primarily. This is the image that has been passed down to us and how he appears in the most common depictions. However, the scholar David Spaan in his essay “The Place of Manannan in Irish Mythology” claims that this sea association is secondary to his true nature, an association likely to be derived from his abode on the Isle of Man and his connection to the land of the dead found thereabouts. Due to the fact that he lives out at sea and has to cross the ocean to carry souls back and forth, he has naturally become associated with the sea as its lord as well. Hence both his sea association and his magical wave-sweeping ship can be explained by his role as psychopomp, and can be supported further by the aforementioned epithet of Agni – Descendent of Waters -- and by Agni's general association with water, to the point that Agni was seen as living in that element and being born from it. Manannan's habitual cloak of mist can then be simply explained by this sea association, or even, more speculatively perhaps, as the natural result of fire touching water.
Spaan further comments on the many similarities between Manannan and the Norse Óðinn, pointing particularly to Manannan as “supreme provider, accomplished magician and sorcerer, as well as custodian of the well of truth and patron of the arts and crafts. Prophet and shape-shifter,” “ruler of the Otherworld,” who leads chosen warriors “to his Land of Promise...to be educated there at his own hand” (Spaan, 179), likening this last facet to Óðinn's role in Valhalla. Manannan also feeds warriors in this place with pigs that are ever renewed, as Óðinn feeds the slain einherjar with the ever-regenerating pig Saehrimnir. This connection of Manannan/Manawydan with Óðinn is important and is crucially supported by the passing of Skaði in marriage from Njörðr to Óðinn, which we have suggested matches the passage of Suryā from Soma to Agni or of Rhiannon from Pwyll to Manawydan. However, while keeping Spaan's important comparisons in mind, we should note here that Agni/Manannan seems only to correspond to one part of the larger makeup of Óðinn, as if the Agni deity is an "aspect" of Óðinn, so to speak. This complex problem will be discussed in another chapter.
Further, more tentative comparisons can be made between Manannan and Agni. Agni is said to be a giver of weapons on more than one occasion. In one portion of the Mahabharata he gives a magical arrow case, four white horses, and a chariot, to Arjuna, along with the powerful Gandiva bow, which becomes Arjuna's signature weapon. He furthermore gives Krishna the cakrayudha weapon. Manannan, for his part, gives Lugh a self-navigating boat, a horse than could cross both sea and land, a magically fatal sword called "The Answerer," a helm, body armor, and neck-piece. He also gives Finn the shield of wood commissioned from Lucra. The story of Manannan's wife may also bear a distant similarity to that of Agni's wife. Manannan's wife Fand falls in love with the central hero Cuchulainn, son of Lugh. The two become lovers, until Cuchulainn's wife musters a force to attack Fand. Fand returns to Manannan, and Mannanan then shakes his magical cloak, causing Fand and Cuchulainn never again to meet. Agni's wife Svāhā, on the other hand, falls in love with and desires Krishna. Krishna tells her that she will become his wife, but that she has first to be the wife of Agni. Agni and Svāhā have a daughter named Agneya. Manannan and Fand have a daughter coincidentally named Áine. Meanwhile, even more strikingly, other texts call Aine the wife of Manannan. Aine is a goddess generally seen to be a goddess of the sun and of summer, which makes for a perfect match to the pattern of sun princesses we have been tracing. Aine is seen by the king Aillil Aulom in a waking dream in a manner reminiscent of that in which Aengus sees Caer, after which Aillil rapes Aine and has his ear bitten off, making him unfit to be king. Another form of the name of Aine is thought to be Aynia, even more mysteriously similar to Agneya. However, Aine is a sun goddess while Agneya's name does not indicate her as one, thus we may consider this overlap as a kind of coincidence bolstered by the deeper linguistic framework of naming surrounding the fire god's female consorts and children. We should properly draw a line between the sun goddess Aine as Manannan's wife and the sun princess Surya as Agni's, and between Fand as Manannan's other wife and Svaha as Agni's other wife, while considering that these two sets of wives may or may not have an indeterminate amount of overlap. Ainya as daughter of Manannan and Agneya as daughter of Agni could then parallel one another, and this could explain the confusion between Aine/Ainya as either the daughter or wife of Manannan. This is no perfect solution to the problem, but the similarities evident here should be enough to further support the connection between Agni and Manannan.
In the Brahmanas and Upanishads, Agni is said to be the heat, light, and energy of life, as well as the swiftness of mind (see: section 5.2.3 of Satapatha Brahmana, Agni is all the gods and the spiritual energy pervading the universe). Agni stands somewhat outside and above the other gods, and is often identified with a great number of them in the Vedas, again pointing to his shapeshifting nature and his status as the element of divine vitality found even within other gods. At times, because of this role as the vitality within the other gods, Agni is even seen as the true highest god and as the creator himself. This is akin to Heraclitus’ view of fire as the prime element, which manifested the unfolding of Logos in the world, and the Zoroastrian understanding of the holy fire, Atar, as the visible manifestation of Ahura Mazda (just as “Agni” would be one aspect of the high Varunian god Óðinn). The Zoroastrian tradition also preserves the idea that fire is a tester of virtue (trial by fire), a shapeshifter, and the vital force required by the other gods for creation. Manannan too seems to be of the gods, yet separate, a powerful magician living over the sea in his far island, yet occasionally called the chief god of all the Tuatha de Danann. For instance, in “The Fosterage of the House of the Two Pails,” Manannan claims that he is the over-king over all of the kings of the Tuatha De Danann and their true ancestor as well. Even Manannan's cloak, which causes those on either side of it to never meet again, can speculatively be explained using the lens of Agni. When we hear of “never meeting again,” induced forgetfulness, etc. in relation to a psychopomp god, we should immediately suspect a reference to death, the cloak of never-again-meeting being the veil between this world and the otherworld. When death occurs, the soul experiences forgetfulness and goes to an unreachable land, as Manannan shakes his cloak, which is perhaps a cloak once again visualized as the smoke rising from the funeral pyre.
Breaking his name speculatively into three parts : Irish mana- may mean "portent, sign" but comes from the root men- meaning "to think" or indicating spiritual activity. The suffix -an can mean "bright" or "brilliant," and, using the Old Irish spelling "Manandan" or the Welsh "Manawydan," the final portion of the name dan can mean "gift," "offering," "skill," or "fate." In a very rough way, only in order to offer suggestions to wiser linguists, we can theorize various potential meanings of the name then, such as "bright portent of thought," "brilliant gift of thought," "skill of mind," etc., which could suggest the bright gift and portent that is fire, which is also a symbol for and the metaphysical origin of mental illumination. Even Manannan's epithet Gilla Decair, meaning "troublesome boyservant," begins to sound like a comic description of fire when all the other evidence is considered. He is never depicted as an actual servant in any of the extant myths.
Considering all of this, it seems that what we have in the case of Manannan is actually a form of the Fire god that has, ironically, not been syncretized with the “descendant of the waters” deity, but merely has traits that make clear to us why these two gods would easily become syncretized, as they are in the Vedic case. If, instead, Irish Nechtan's etymology connects him to Neptune and Apam Napat, the true “descendant of the waters,” as seems likely (see: Dumezil, “Les Puits de Nechtan”), then we would see that Nechtan (Apam Napat) and Manannan (Agni) are preserved separately in the Irish tradition, while they have become syncretized into one god in the Vedic. What we see with Manannan, then, is as clear a picture as we can wish for of why the fire god, Agni, became syncretized with the Descendant of Waters, Apam Napat: because the fire god is also a child of waters, but in a different context. Manannan's appellation mac Lir, “son of the sea,” has a specific esoteric meaning relating to fire's birth from water or the sea, but does not make him precisely the same as the water deity known as Apam Napat, Nechtan, etc. who is also primarily known to be descended from the waters, but has his own specific and separate function seemingly not specifically related to fire. Thus the Irish “sea god” is likely to actually be the god of fire. Specifically he is the god of fire-in-water, a highly important Indo-European concept.
Agni and Óðinn
In this interpretation we would also be able to theorize the placement of Agni in the Norse pantheon. After the sun princess Suryā, in the “Suryā's Bridal” hymn, is said to be married to Soma, she is said to marry the Gandharva and then Agni. While we can say this might indicate the passing of the sun's rays from the moon at night, to the birds of dawn or the singers of the dawn sacrifice (manifestations of the Gandharvas), to the sacrificial dawn fires (Agni), we can also say that Skaði's leaving of Njörðr for Óðinn also seems to match the "Suryā's Bridal" pattern. As we can surmise that Bragi is a much more likely match for the Gandharva than Óðinn is (as Óðinn is not likely to be the lower level court musician of the gods no matter how wise and full of Mead of Poetry he is), it seems logical that Óðinn here may be taking the role of Agni, or more exactly, that Agni is one of the aspects of Óðinn. We note that, as Curwen Rolinson has pointed out in his “Soma-Kvasir, The Eddic-Vedic Myth of the Meath of Poetry,” Óðinn turning into the eagle to escape from the mountain fortress with the Mead of Poetry also parallels the hawk Shyena, a form of Agni, who steals the sacred liquid from the mountain.
This would also fit with the pattern of Óðinn's seeming monopoly on the great majority of magico-priestly deities as compared with the Vedic branch, whether these be Brihaspati, Varuna, Agni, etc. Each of these can be shown to be connected to myths belonging to Óðinn. It would also partially explain the sometimes remarked upon similarities of Óðinn and Manannan as we have mentioned regarding Spaan's "The Place of Manannan in Irish Mythology," and would perhaps account for Óðinn's psychopomp-related roles as well, perhaps even his penchant for going about in disguise. Vedic Agni and Brihaspati are the two central priests of the sacrifice, the priest of fire and of the spoken word, respectively. As such, interpreting both Brihaspati and Agni as aspects of Óðinn would only be reuniting the otherwise divided priestly aspects in one figure.
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[One thing has to be added as a postscript to this issue, as a possibility for further contemplation. The incarnation of Agni from the Mahabharata, Dhrishtadyumna, seems possibly to share a myth with Freyr as well. Dhrishtadyumna is bested by Ashwatthama in the Kurukshetra War because he is missing his sword. This fact is underlined when Ashwatthama refuses to let him die with his sword in his hand. Freyr famously gives his sword away to Skirnir, and misses it later in the battle of Ragnarok. He confronts Surtr (a demonic fire entity) in this battle, and is killed. Now, the Irish Aengus, who we have seen is cognate to Freyr, has a brother named Aed, meaning simply "fire." As it happens, there is not as much Aed's body of myth that can be connected with the myths of Vedic Agni, unlike in the case of Manannan. Both are likely manifestations of Agni, but just because Aed's name means “fire,” this should not make us set Mannanan aside as a form of “Agni” as well. Additionally, in Vedic scripture, the Dawn goddess and the Horse Twins are sometimes called siblings (compare here Freyr and Freyja as siblings and Aengus and Brigid as siblings), and Agni is said also to be their brother. In the Mahabharata, Dhrishtadyumna, incarnation of Agni, is born as a twin with Draupadi (who may or may not be connected to Ushas and who may even more clearly match Freyja than Ushas does), each emerging in succession from the holy flame of the yagna rite. As Draupadi has been speculated in another chapter to be related to the incarnated Dawn goddess, this twin birth is likely an allegory for the birth of the holy flame and the dawn at the same moment during the dawn sacrifice. The coinciding of their appearance and the dawn sacrifice is also the reason the Horse Twins, as gods of the morning star, are seen as brothers of the Dawn goddess. Horse Twins, Dawn, and Fire Priest gods are then siblings. However, seeing that Freyr, unlike Aengus, is not said to have any brothers, could we speculate a partial combination of the mythos of this Fire god into the Horse Twin Freyr, as suggested by the shared motif of dying due to missing his sword? Or reversing the causation, perhaps, could we leave open the possibility that Agni's Mahabharata incarnation took this myth from the Horse Twins due to their close association as brothers?
Ultimately, what the separate existences of Irish Aed and Manannan suggests is that the fire deity may have been seen to have at least two separate aspects: one a more earthly fire, Aed, the other the high priest and psychopomp, Manannan. This accords exceedingly well with the Vedic case, in which celestial and terrestrial fires were separately designated, the celestial Ahavaniya Agni and the terrestrial Garhapatya Agni. Dumezil points out that a precisely corresponding division of fires appears in Roman tradition with the ordinary templum vs. the aedes Vesta. The Latin word for this latter temple, aedes, as might be obvious, comes from the same root word that gives the Irish Aed his name, and likely came to designate temples due to the fact that these buildings housed sacred flames. Thus, if Aed can be seen as this same terrestrial, domestic fire, he would have direct cognates in the flame of the Vestals and the Garhapatya Agni of the Vedics. The Dagda is Aed's father, he bears the epithet Aed himself, and is the wind god. This likely reflects an understanding also seen in the Rig Veda that the wind is father of fire, and is almost continuous with it, carrying the germ of the spark.
This postscript must be marked as speculative and tenuous, but it also must be noted: it may be that we find these two aspects of the Fire god absorbed separately into, or even "originating" from, Freyr and Óðinn respectively, as the lower and higher priest gods.]
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The Welsh Horse Twin(s) and the Grail
As we have seen, the Welsh mythological corpus takes the central myth of the Horse Twins and the Gandharva-Wasteland myth, likely two parts of one cycle to begin with, and emphasizes their continuity, compressing them into a more unified narrative, thus ultimately laying the groundwork for the legends surrounding the great object of mystique, the Holy Grail.
Pwyll and Rhiannon's son – Pryderi – has often been put forward as both a Horse Twin and the prototype of the grail quester. So far we have seen how he takes the same role in the Welsh version of the "Aesir-Vanir War" that is taken by Irish Aengus, Norse Freyr, Roman Titus Tatius, and the Vedic Asvins. Pryderi is born on the same night as a horse, which is raised up with him as his own, and indeed almost as his twin. After being kidnapped on the night of his birth, he is fostered by Teyrnon, known as a great raiser of horses, and the boy is noted as well to have an affinity for horses. Pryderi is one of only two “young sons” around which the Mabinogion centers. The title “Mabinogion” itself is believed to refer to Mabon ap Modron, Mabon meaning “young son” and being a direct cognate of Macc Oc, the title by which Aengus is called. This Mabon has certain traits that align him with the Horse Twin type as well. As West explains, citing Koch and Carey,
“The Indo-European divine Twins, the youthful sons of *Dyeus, were especially noted for appearing in battle on their white horses and bringing assistance or deliverance...It may be added that in a poem in the Book of Taliesin, celebrating the wars and cattle-raiding of Owein of Rheged, the young god Mabon is represented as appearing in battle on a white steed and killing all of the enemy within reach” (West 483, Koch–Carey, Celtic Heroic Age, 356–8) (Aengus also appears in a Scottish folktale riding a white steed and wearing a raiment of shining gold, see: Mackenzie, Donald Alexander, 1917). Furthermore, the Mabon is kidnapped and imprisoned at birth as Pryderi is also kidnapped at birth. Garrett Olmsted outlines the details thus: Now the term in Macc Óc is only a reformation of an earlier Mac in Óc, which is preserved in the genitive in LU 2942 (Bruig Meic ind Oc) and LU 4117 (maig Meic ind Óc). Thus O’Rahilly (1946: 516-7) suggests that the name developed from an earlier *Maccan Óc “The Young Son”. Here then the name *Maccan is cognate with Welsh Mabon. In this connection it is significant that *Maccan Óc spends the first part of his life in the síd with Midir and not with his mother Boand. In the Welsh Trioedd Ynys Prydein, Mabon ap Modron is one of the Three Exalted Prisoners of Britain (Tri Goruchel Garchravr Ynys Brydein) (Bromwich 1961: 140 ‘52). Similarly in Culhwch ac Owein the motif of the prisoner is continued, where Mabon is again cruelly imprisoned.
Mabon uab Modron yssys yma ygcarch(ar) ac ny charcharvyt neb kyn dosted yn llvrv carchur a mil. (Evans 1907: 492).”
He concludes: “The implication is that Boand may be equated with Modron. Modron in turn derives from the earlier Gaulish Matrona “the Mother”, eponymous goddess of the river Marne. The fact that Modron derives from a river and source goddess Matrona confirms the identification with Boand, herself the eponymous goddess of the Boind” (Olmsted, 91).
Hence the Mabinogion is theoretically the book of Mabon, the book of the young son. The only other “young son” of the Mabinogion that this epithet could refer to is Lleu Llaw Gyffes, who we can confidently say is not a Horse Twin [we have shown Lleu/Lugh to be the Mitraic god in previous chapters]. Instead, Lleu appears only in the final branch of the four, and provides a thematic mirror for Pryderi, completes the cycle that he begins, in precisely the same way that Baldr is a mirror of Freyr and he along with the mysterious Lord of the endtimes completes the cycle that Freyr and the Vanir begin. In fact, Pryderi is a central figure of two out of the four "branches" of the Mabinogion, and appears in all four, more than can be said for any other figure. The idea that the Mabinogion is “Pryderi's book” then, revolving around his birth, life and death narrative, and that he is thus "the Mabon," is by no means far-fetched. Ifor Williams, for one, has argued that the Mabinogion as a whole may have originally centered around Pryderi. In other medieval texts such as the poem “Preiddeu Annwn,” the mysterious Mabon is said to be imprisoned somewhere in the otherworld, and figures such as King Arthur and Cei seek to free him. In Pryderi's story in the Mabinogion, he and his mother are lured into a mysterious fort and place their hands on a golden bowl found inside. They are frozen in place and then vanish from sight. It is only after significant time passes that Manawydan, Rhiannon's then husband, is able to rescue them by outwitting their captors. This is after Pryderi had caused the region to become an enchanted "wasteland" by ill-advisedly sitting on the mystical mound Gorsedd Arberth (from which Pwyll had first seen Rhiannon), and the land is only restored to normalcy and vitality when Manawydan rescues him from the Otherworld fort by means of his cunning. This theme of the restoration of the wasteland is one of several elements from this story that seems to have been carried through into the grail legends, and we have seen how it exists also in the parallel Indian tale of Samvarana.
Crucially, Pryderi is also the theorized inspiration for the Welsh version of the grail quester, Peredur, who was either influenced by or himself influenced, in an unclear way, or came from the same shared source as, the better known grail quester Perceval. While Peredur is theorized to mean “hard spear,” we can't ignore the similarity of the names Peredur and Pryderi. Whereas the Asvins in the Vedic tale end by being given the secret to attain the soma and are admitted among the gods, and as Aengus in his Irish tale drinks a drink of immortality at Goibniu's feast, the Welsh Pryderi in his myth places his hand on a golden bowl found in a mysterious fort and is taken to the Otherworld. The general structure of Pryderi's myth of course is more similar to Samvarana's dalliance on the celestial mountain breast as his kingdom turns to a waste, yet the feature of accessing this golden bowl does not appear in Samvarana's tale and is instead reminiscent of the Asvins' accessing of the soma, thus suggesting a colliding of these two overlapping tale types, which were probably originally seen as succeeding each other in the greater Lunar Cycle. Pryderi and Rhiannon, trapped by this golden bowl, must then be rescued by Manawydan. In the Arthurian lore, which seems a later elaboration of the theme, both the Mabon and a magical cauldron become objects of quest for King Arthur and Cei, and are said to reside in the underworld of Annwn.
Peredurus as Horse Twin
One significant clue to the identity of Peredur lies in an account by Geoffrey of Monmouth found in his pseudo-historical work Historia Regum Britanniae. As readers have recognized, this account contains the name of a certain King Peredurus, who appears among a sequence of brothers. Four brothers to Peredurus and one father are mentioned here, succeeding one another in kingship, and based on our acquaintanceship with the oft-repeated pattern of the six incarnations of the gods of society, showing up as the Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata and the primary heroes of the Iliad (see chapter: The Iliad Heroes as Indo-European Gods), as well as slightly more dispersed in the other mythologies, our suspicions should be alerted. For the Pandavas too were made up of five brothers and one father, and in descending order by age were: the incarnations of Varuna, Mitra, Vayu, Indra, and the two Horse Twins. Upon analysis this sequence of kings of the Britons appears more and more alike to the Pandava (and Iliad, etc.) template.
First is the father, Morvidus, who is ill-tempered but generous. His reign, like that of all the Terrible Sovereigns, is notable for its series of invasions and conquests, and Morvidus is said to have defeated invaders of his country, as Nuada defeated the Fir Bolg. He was so bloody and terrible in his wrath that he personally killed every enemy captive after the battle, skinning and burning many, behavior consonant with the Varunian name “Terrible Sovereign.” Eventually, Morvidus faced off against a dragon that appeared from the sea and began devouring his subjects. In single combat Morvidus fell and was eaten by this dragon, while Nuada was beheaded in the war with the Fomorians. Morvidus' reign was succeeded by his son Gorbonianus, who is said to have ruled with justice and fair laws, and to have been frugal, upholding equity in his kingdom. This already seems almost a caricature of the Lawful Sovereign, Mitra, who we would expect to follow immediately after the Terrible Sovereign. But even more, Gorbonianus is said to have been very pious and to have frequently paid respects to the gods, even restoring many temples in his time. He reduced violence by giving gifts of gold and protection to soldiers and farmers. Again this seems to explicitly reflect the pious and Brahmin-like nature of the Mitra archetype -- Yudhishthira, for one, depicted as an ascetic Brahmin who also brings justice and peace via victory in war. Consider also the even more similar Roman Mitraic incarnation Numa Pompilius, who lived a life of piety and to whom many religious institutions and reforms are attributed.
We would expect the following two brothers to then be alike to the two warrior gods, Indra and Vayu; however, they are somewhat difficult to identify based on their descriptions in this account. First is Archgallo, who is said to be a cruel king desirous of demolishing the nobles. His focus is directly described as being to reverse what his brother Gorbonianus had accomplished, and, in particular, to steal the wealth of the nobles. This sounds most like a description of the repeated conflict of the Indra archetype with the Mitra-Varuna archetype (whichever one takes the position of the Sovereign of Justice in a given version). This would be the perennial theme of the warrior caste in conflict with the priestly and kingly class, chafing under the dictates of sovereign law, subject to their own warrior ethical codes that put them at odds with or outside of the norms of society, yet still remaining, uncomfortably, subject to the rule of the Sovereign and of Natural Law. This conflict appears famously in the Iliad as that between Achilles and Agamemnon, and repeats in the Mahabharata with Arjuna being dishonored by Yudhishthira when the latter tells the former to give away his signature bow, symbolic of his warrior honor, prowess, and autonomy, because he hasn't up to that point succeeded in killing Karna. It repeats as well in the Irish conflict between the thunder god Tuireann's sons and Lugh. Compare also Roman Tullus Hostilius, who Dumezil compared to the warrior function gods, and who succeeds Numa Pompilius, but is a war king and believes his predecessor's pacifism had weakened the kingdom. Despite Archgallo's cruel agenda, his brother Elidurus supported him loyally and even forced dissenters to swear loyalty to Archgallo after they installed Elidurus as a replacement. Eventually Archgallo improved as a ruler and ruled peacefully, perhaps reflecting the positive light in which the Thunderer was still seen despite his perpetual conflict with the sovereign and priestly caste. On Archgallo's death, Elidurus succeeded him and ruled justly. Though it is hard to place any very specific parallel with regard to Elidurus, it can in fact be said that the second function god Vayu (and even more so his sons Hanuman and Bhima) was known for loyalty, which Elidurus more than anything embodies.
During Elidurus' reign however, his two younger brothers, Ingenius and the aforementioned Peredurus, are said to have teamed up and attacked him, winning the kingdom from him and trapping him in a tower. The two brothers then decided to split the kingdom of Britain in half, each one ruling simultaneously in their respective halves. The seeming close unity of these two youngest brothers, acting almost as one and then dividing the kingdom into two even halves, of course seems to be a reflection of the unity, to the point of identification, which we often see with regard to the Horse Twins. These gods are twins in both name and action, referred to simply by the unifying moniker “the Asvins” in Vedic myth, and frequently seem to be connected at the hip in their exploits.
To reiterate, we have first a terrible and bloodthirsty father king, followed by an eldest son who is a just and pious king who loves fair laws, followed by a king who is in conflict with the nobles who had aligned with the previous just sovereign, followed by one king whose main attribute is loyalty, followed by two fully united brother kings whose actions and division of the kingdom can be said to be twin-like, and who even team up to make war against their brother in an action again reminiscent of the Aesir-Vanir War motif. Thus, if this sketchy but highly suggestive sequence of kings can be said to follow what we have seen elsewhere to be a widespread and ubiquitous pattern, a pattern deeply ingrained in ancient European myth and central to ancient European religion, then we can feel confident in identifying King Peredurus as a pseudo-historical stand-in for one of the Horse Twin gods. Already we have seen that Pryderi has been plausibly identified as one of these Twins without this added evidence, and more tentatively has been called an early form of the grail quester, whose name became Peredur. The structural analysis of this passage of Monmouth suggests that this can be, if not verified, then strongly supported from a second angle. Here we have excavated the fact that Peredurus was likely to have been seen as one name of one of the Horse Twins. Thus we have strengthened the crucial supposition that Peredur, the grail quester, was, in his true identity, originally one of these Twins. And if Pryderi too can be confidently identified as a Horse Twin by the evidence we have previously laid out, then his identity with Peredur the grail quester is strengthened as well. We must at the same time wonder at the name of the brother of Peredurus in this pseudo-historical account – Ingenius – so mysteriously reminiscent of Freyr's other name, Ing or Yngvi; reminiscent as well of the other coincidentally named Horse Twins from Ireland and Britain, Aengus and Hengist. This Ingenius is even said to be another version of the Welsh name Owain, and Owain is himself identified with Mabon in the poem “A Rumor Has Come to Me From Calchvynyd” from the Book of Taliesin (see a similar case in Peniarth 147). Consider also the close coincidence of the proposed Proto-Germanic form of Ingvi-Freyr's name, *Inguz, and Aengus.
Peredur (as opposed to Peredurus) is the central character of a late 12th century romance, Peredur son of Efrawg, telling the same story as Chretien de Troye's Perceval, but with a few notable differences. One of these differences is the absence of the grail itself, in its place a salver with a severed head on it. Due to the closeness of the romances of Peredur and Perceval in terms of their narrative details, scholars have sought to understand the relationship of the names of the respective heroes, Peredur and Perceval. Percival, meaning “pierce the vale” is a difficult one to connect to Peredur “hard spear,” though each name does denote something relating to piercing, in one fashion or another. Some scholars have suggested, due to the supposed dates of composition, that Peredurus was an approximation of the name Percival in the Welsh language, though it is quite possible that the direction of influence could have been reversed – in any case, they could both come from other earlier shared sources. Jeffrey Gantz believed in such a general reversal of priority if not influence, saying, “inasmuch as Crestiens admits that Perceval is a Welshman, and inasmuch as the name Perceval means little, it seems likely that the name Peredur is the more original form of the hero's name. Peredur moreover looks suspiciously like Pryderi” (Gantz, Mabinogion, Introduction). He further points out two key connections, one between Pryderi and Peredur and one between Pryderi and Perceval. Pryderi is said to be accompanied by a companion named Gwgri in the Mabinogion tale “Math fab Mathonwy.” The Peredur found in Welsh history, cited as living in the fifth century, had a companion of the same name, Gwgri. Of the same opinion, Roger Sherman Loomis explains that
The Annales Cambriae record the death of Peredur and Gwgri in the same year, 580. Of this tradition the Mabinogi of Math seems to afford a vague reminiscence. Gwydion overcoming Pryderi in battle, then Pryderi giving hostages Gwgri Gwastra and 23 others, sons and nobles. The hostages were set free to follow the men of the South. It cannot be without significance that a Gwgri should be closely associated with the deaths of both Peredur and Pryderi (Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance).
Gantz then compares the parallel personalities of Pryderi and Perceval as both being “naive” and “freewheeling...prone to serious errors in judgment,” concluding boldly that “Perhaps at an earlier stage Pryderi-Peredurus was both the focal point of the Four Branches and the central figure in the first Grail narratives” (Gantz, Mabinogion, 1976). Clearly, there is a well-established case for the continuity of the figures Pryderi, Peredurus, Peredur, and Perceval, and hence a strong foundation for a case that the original grail quester was based on the Horse Twin god.
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Welsh Myth and The Story of the Grail
The encounter of Pryderi with the golden bowl in the mysterious fort is itself reminiscent of the grail encounter in several ways. The fort seemed to appear where there had previously been no fort, a feature common to the mystical castles of the grail legends. Pryderi finds in the fort a marble fountain and a golden bowl suspended by chains in the air. When he touches the bowl, his speech and movement are frozen. This episode follows the “wasteland” enchantment of the land in which all the people and domestic animals vanish, and during which the fields which Manawydan and Cigfa sow are repeatedly destroyed, and after Pryderi has married his shining bride and Manawydan has married his now widowed mother Rhiannon. This enchantment comes as a result of Pryderi occupying the sacred mound Gorsedd Arberth, but apparently being found unworthy by it. As commentator Mike Ashley tallies the correspondences of this narrative to that of the grail legend: the enchanted land where crops are destroyed matches the Fisher King's wasteland; the mysterious fort matches the mysterious grail castle; the golden bowl of course is like the grail, which in its earliest form is a serving dish rather than a cup; and the sacred mound Gorsedd Arberth, which judges you and finds you worthy or unworthy, is like the seat known in the grail legends as the Siege Perilous, which has the same power of judgment (Ashley, The Mammoth Book of King Arthur).
The Grail King
The true, divine identity of the Grail King or Fisher King himself, then, is perhaps the most contentious detail of the comparison. A popular theory forwarded by John Rhys states that just as Peredur is the similarly named Pryderi, so the Grail King Pelles/Pellam is the similarly named Pwyll, father of Pryderi. This is quite an attractive theory considering the closeness of the names, the fact that Pwyll has the paternal role in the narrative in relation to Pryderi, that we have seen taken elsewhere by Chyavana and Njörðr, and most importantly the fact that Pwyll becomes the stand-in lord of Annwn, the Welsh Underworld, at the beginning of the tale “Pwyll, pendefig Dyfed,” and as such would be lord over the cauldron that is later said to be kept there, that cauldron which Arthur quests for in the Preiddeu Annwn and which is associated with the Mabon. However, as we have seen, the myth of Pwyll corresponds extremely closely to that of Samvarana rather than to that of Chyavana, and thus mythically we have connected him to the Gandharva of the Rig Veda rather than to Soma. Furthermore, Pwyll is already dead by the time of Pryderi and Rhiannon's otherworld abduction (not that this would need to affect a chief of the underworld). But due to the evidence of a combination of the Pryderi-Horse Twin myth and the Pwyll-Gandharva myth into one continuous narrative (which appears as the two branches of the Mabinogion, "Pwyll, prince of Dyfed," and "Manawydan, son of Llyr"), Pwyll and Pryderi each taking half of the same myth which in the Indian version is carried solely by Samvarana, we can deduce that certain elements of the Lunar Cycle were already being amalgamated into one tale within the Welsh tradition. It is possible, then, that as a Gandharva, who were known as guardians of the Soma, and having acquired a shared lordship of the underworld realm where the cauldron is kept (these perhaps being the same thing), Pwyll could have, in the Welsh tradition, taken on a more central role in relation to the liquid of immortality. Indeed it is even possible to speculate that Pwyll may have absorbed or been combined with the role of Soma in a particular way.
On the other hand, Robert de Boron's later version of the Fisher King is named Bron, generally equated to the similarly named Bran the Blessed. Bran takes a mortal wound to the leg just as Bron has an incapacitating wound to the thigh. However, the earliest grail legend, as found in Chretien's Perceval, features a head presented on a silver platter at the mysterious grail castle. The procession which presents this platter is overseen by the ailing Grail King/Fisher King. But it is Bran himself who in Welsh myth is beheaded and has his sacred head magically preserved, the head having the power to stop the aging of those who accompany it and the power to oversee and defend Britain from invasion. This would suggest that the Grail King then was not this Bran, but instead was the keeper of his head as a relic or ritual object. This confusion seems to come from the fact that there were so many different lords of the underworld in Indo-European myth, each with distinct roles in that realm. Over time these distinct gods became more and more conflated and confused as the religion was forgotten. Bran likely occupies an underworld role connected either to the mythos of the Vedic Yama or possibly Vayu, whereas the Soma and Gandharva underworld gods are more central to the Grail narrative.
If we take instead Soma, seen to be identical to the Norse Njörðr, as either the Grail King or the higher deity who is master of that king (with the king being only the grail's guardian, just as the Gandharva is guardian of the soma) then we perhaps find a better explanation for why the king is portrayed as a fisher. The name “Fisher King” of course comes from the fact that Perceval comes upon the mysterious king fishing while he is going to visit his mother and is then invited to stay at his castle. We find out later that this king's father is sustained by a single wafer of communion contained in the Grail, but also that the Fisher King himself is wounded and unable to leave his bed except to fish. Thus there are in fact two kings in fragile state in this castle, perhaps the younger having the role of guardian of the Grail corresponding to the role of the Gandharva and the other being a higher ruling divinity in line with the god Soma. But the act of fishing itself also connects directly to the examples of the Soma archetype we have encountered thus far. Njörðr, for instance, is explicitly lord over the wealth of the sea – that is, fish. Additionally, Chyavana, when first encountered in the Mahabharata version, is said to have begun “to practice austerities by the side of yonder lake” (Mahabharata, Vana Parva p. 259). Finally, we could consider the moon itself, pictured hanging above its ocean domain, as taking the part of a fisher there, both of the fish and crucially of souls, as the moon was believed to draw the souls of the dead to it for reincarnation in Vedic cosmogony. (On the common understanding of the moon as a primary afterlife destination, Mircea Eliade says, "This journey to the moon after death was also preserved in highly developed cultures (India, Greece, Iran), but some thing else was added. To the Indians, it is the "path of the manes" (pitryāna), and souls reposed in the moon while awaiting reincarnation, whereas the sun road or "path of the gods " (devayāna) was taken by the initiated, or those set free from the illusions of ignorance...the Elysian Fields, where heroes and Caesars went after death, were in the moon," and he notes further that "Everywhere in Europe the half-moon is to be found as a funeral symbol...in Gaul for instance, the moon was a local symbol in use long before any contact with the Romans" (Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, 172, 174)).
A large amount of this confusion comes from the fact that we have not yet been able to identify the Welsh moon god "Soma" himself within the Welsh myths. However, due to the fact that we have been able to fit all of the other Welsh gods into their parallels within the Lunar Cycle, we should look to the one possibly relevant portion of the Welsh cycle that we have so far ignored. This is the opening section of the main four branches of the Mabinogion, the very first episode of "Pwyll, prince of Dyfed," which immediately precedes Pwyll seeing Rhiannon for the first time on her magical horse. In this episode, Pwyll, while hunting, encounters a pack of hounds chasing and then killing a stag. He then drives the hounds away from the dead stag to let his own hounds eat. Arawn arrives at the scene and declares that he has been affronted by the driving away of his hounds, and says that the only recompense he will take for it is that Pwyll must exchange places with him and become lord of Arawn's underworld kingdom, Annwn, for a year and a day, and must slay Arawn's hostile neighbor Hafgan at the end of the term. During this time, Pwyll will have the semblance of Arawn and will sleep in bed next to Arawn's wife. During the whole year and a day, Pwyll does not make love to the wife of Arawn. We read that every night, "The moment they got into the bed, he turned his face to the side, with his back towards her. From then until the next day, he didn't say a single word to her" (Mabinogion, Pwyll, prince of Dyfed).
If there have been any doubts about the identification of Pwyll with the Gandharva, perhaps due to his lacking clear musical associations in the existing myths, this scene should help dispel those doubts. For, as Grassman puts it, the Gandharva is known as "the guardian of virginity," and this is the role he plays in the sequence of husbands listed in the "Surya's Bridal" hymn. Ralph Griffith cites Grassman on this score in his famous Veda translation:
"As the typical bride Surya was first married to Soma, so the young maid originally belongs to him, then to the Gandharva, as the guardian of virginity, then to Agni as the sacred fire round which she walks in the marriage ceremony, and fourthly to her human husband" (Grassman, Griffith, Rig Veda).
This is of course likely the key to the meaning of the entire series of husbands found in the Lunar Cycle, but it is even more specifically illustrated in the case of Welsh Pwyll. There is a passage in the ancient Griha Sutra of Apastamba that lays out exactly the rites and actions a newly-wed couple is supposed to take, which are drawn specifically from the “Surya's Bridal” hymn, which is seen as the prototype of all human marriages. Upon coming home from their wedding to their home for the first time, the couple are expected to observe a period of chastity, during which they are to place a staff between them while they sleep. And, as Narayan Aiyangar explains, this staff is called a Gandharva-samit, and is believed to have within it the spirit of the Gandharva Visvavasu, the very same chief Gandharva we have spoken of previously, who is named in the “Surya’s Bridal” hymn. This period of chastity can last anywhere from three nights to a maximum of a full year, just as Pwyll's tenure is one year long. Thus it appears that Pwyll, in this myth, is enacting this exact ancient role of the Gandharva as preserver of virginity, lying chastely in bed with the bride for one year just as the Gandharva-samit staff does in the ancient marriage rite. When removing the Gandharva-samit, the couple must even recite a verse taken directly from the “Surya’s Bridal” hymn, verse 21-22, telling the Gandharva Visvavasu to leave the bride and “seek in her father’s home another fair one” (which Pwyll essentially does), one of the key verses we have discussed in relation to the myths in an earlier part.
At the conclusion of the year in Annwn, Pwyll slays Hafgan. For these deeds, Arawn and Pwyll declare their friendship, unite their kingdoms, and Pwyll is thenceforth known as Chief of Annwn.
Although this form of the "Marriage of Soma" story seems in certain ways to be the furthest of all from the other examples we have thus far analyzed, the role of Pwyll detailed above gives us very good reason to speculate that Arawn could be the moon god "Soma." Most obviously, Soma is the one missing deity from the larger Welsh cycle we have analyzed, and thus if Arawn were Soma it would complete the set of parallels. Arawn is also already married at the start of the series of Welsh myths, making his marriage the first in the sequence as Soma's is in the Vedic Hymn. We also see from the Vedic case that Soma is known as the teacher of the chief Gandharva, who becomes a stand-in and guardian for Soma, just as Pwyll becomes a stand-in for Arawn. The fact that the moon was often seen as one of the primary afterlife destinations, where souls go to be renewed before reincarnating, could then explain why Arawn is the lord of the "underworld" of Annwn (which in the Welsh conception was not necessarily spatially “under” at all). This very underworld also is where the great magical cauldron, sought by Arthur, is said to be stored, which cooks food though only for the brave. The swine that Pryderi trades to Gwydion, which are explicitly symbols of fertility and general third function powers (swineherds as a symbol of the activity of the pastoralist class, swine as a form of wealth, and seen as promoting fertility of the fields due to their rooting and fertilizing activity) originate in Annwn, as gifts from Arawn. It is said of Arawn's court that "of all the Courts upon the earth, behold this was the best supplied with food and drink, and vessels of gold and royal jewels" (Mabinogion, Pwyll, prince of Dyfed). Thus, these details would match, for instance, Njörðr seen as the origin of fecundating powers of land and sea that bring wealth, and his most common description as "wealthy." Finally, the physical description of Arawn could also imply a lunar role. He is said to appear at first "upon a large light-grey steed, with a hunting horn round his neck, and clad in garments of grey woolen in the fashion of a hunting garb," the light grey color of steed and horse, as well as the hunting horn (a crescent shape), possibly being lunar symbolism, and his hounds also being the lunar color white, with red ears (Mabinogion, Pwyll, prince of Dyfed). Recall, the animals wagered by Irish Soma god Midir: grey horses with red heads and cows with red ears. Of the fight between Hafgan and Pwyll (disguised as Arawn) it is said, "Each claimeth of the other his land and territory," which, while a broad and general statement, would accord with the idea that this is a fight between the Moon god and a hostile aspect of the Sun god – Hafgan indeed means "summer-bright" and in his role equates to the hostile and solar Thjazi – just as moon and sun seem to battle for lordship of the sky at the borders of night and day, or the waters of the moon (rain) with the drought of summer on another level. While Hafgan desires Arawn's lands rather than a golden object of regeneration as Thjazi does, it is true that he too is in possession of some kind of magical regenerating ability, perhaps similar to the power of the Norse golden apples, and the power of which Pwyll finally nullifies by striking him once with his sword and not more.
If we need more proof that Irish Midir and Welsh Arawn are the same god, Midir himself is suggested to be an underworld lord by his depiction with three cranes, likely symbols of death, who guard his castle and can steal the will to fight from any warrior. Midir is also known to have a cauldron, which is one of the treasures of the Tuatha De Danann, and it is stolen by Cuchulainn. The Welsh underworld (or otherworld) Annwn, whose lord is Arawn, is also said to be guarded by three cranes, and the cauldron of Annwn that is sought by Arthur would then align with the cauldron of Midir taken by Cuchulainn.
Thus, if, despite its altered form, we are satisfied with the identification of Arawn with the Soma Moon god, then we have completed the picture of the Welsh Lunar Cycle. Furthermore, Arawn and Pwyll as co-chiefs of Annwn would nicely match the fact that there are two ailing kings of the Grail castle. If the parallel is accepted, then the younger king, who is known to go fishing, and who is called Pelles, would be Pwyll, the Gandharva, and guardian of the Soma. The elder grail king would be Arawn, or Soma, the actual master and overseer of the grail/soma and the castle in which it is found, though the two, as we see in the myth of Pwyll and Arawn, have combined kingdoms and become essentially interchangeable. The presence of Bran as another lord of the otherworld would be felt in the severed head and in the name attached by later writers to the grail king, the separate otherworld lords gradually becoming confused.
The detail of the virginity-preserving Gandharva staff, in particular, makes it seem that the episode between Pwyll and Arawn, rather than being a late malformation of the Lunar Cycle, appearing in a relatively late manuscript (12th-14th Century) as it does, actually has claim to the preservation of some of the most archaic details of all the versions we have examined. Indeed, if the series of husbands found in the myths are supposed to mirror those found in the ideal marriage rites of the "Surya's Bridal" hymn of the ancient Rig Veda, then we would expect Soma to marry first, then the Gandharva to appear as a temporary pseudo-husband, guarding the chastity of the bride, which is what seems to happen with Pwyll and Arawn's episode. The marriage of Manawydan as Agni should then come after Pwyll's marriage to Rhiannon, but Pryderi the Horse Twin's instead comes just before it. However, these two marriages happen in such close succession that it's possible that it was not seen as necessary to stress their strict order as much. The Horse Twin's marriage had to be fit in somewhere and makes a natural sequel to his father's marriage. It is remarkable to contemplate the fact that here, in the latest of the mythic versions of the Lunar Cycle, we may have an example of something close to the proper order of myths as they appeared in the earliest times, not absolutely complete by any means, and showing some serious alterations, but at least linked together into one relatively unified narrative.
Furthermore, within this narrative, in a very altered form, we can see the key elements of the "Soma" narrative as found in the other branches. First is the affront that needs recompense, Pwyll offending Arawn by driving away his hounds. This would parallel the poking of Midir and Chyavana's eye, or the killing of Skaði's father Thjazi. In the Welsh case, the recompense is significantly different, but the structural element of an offense requiring recompense is the same at its core. Next is the motif of the outsider getting in the middle of the marriage of the older god and his wife, which is of two types and corresponds to two separate portions of the Vedic Hymn: the Gandharva as second “husband” and preserver of virginity and the Horse Twins as wooers. That is: Pwyll sleeps next to Arawn's wife during the whole of the year and a day, but in the end he does not make love to her, and Arawn's marriage simply continues happily. In the case of Chyavana, the Asvins first attempt to woo his wife Sukanya before ultimately helping to renew his youth and, in the Rig Vedic hymn, "leading the train" of their wedding. Aengus, too, temporarily becomes a pseudo-husband to Midir's wife Etain while she is in the form of a fly, but only acts as a noble custodian to her, perhaps even more reminiscent of the case of Pwyll. We see the same theme of getting in the middle of a marriage repeat, as we will see, with Perceval and the Knight of the Tent. Next, the hostile neighbor of Arawn who Pwyll has to defeat seems to be in the position of the hostile Norse figure Thjazi, thief of the golden apples, who is killed to return the magical rejuvenating fruit to the gods. This seems even more likely given the fact that (as we will see in more detail) a similar figure occurs in the Grail legend as the Red Knight, the hostile, warring neighbor of Arthur who steals a golden cup (not the grail) from Arthur, and who is finally killed for Arthur by the interloping Perceval, while Hafgan is killed for Arawn by the interloping Pwyll.
The Grail Quester Perceval and The Lunar Cycle
Many additional parallels can be adduced between the stories of Perceval and Pryderi, but also between Perceval and the Horse Twin mythos in a broader sense. Perceval, like Pryderi, is deeply shaped by separation from his mother. Perceval initially is raised in the forest by his protective mother, but leaves her to pursue a career of knighthood. It is only later that he thinks of her condition and begins a journey back to her. It is on this journey that he encounters the Grail Castle and several other adventures. Pryderi is also raised away from civilization, though this is due to his abduction as an infant, which separates him from his mother. Thus when he grows to adulthood he must be reunited with his mother. A theme of a general romantic dalliance is perhaps not a rare or surprising thing for any tale, but Perceval meets and falls in love with Blanchefleur at the midpoint of his journey and just before going to the Grail castle, while, in the same way, Pryderi is said to marry Cigfa at the midpoint between the tales that revolve around him, just before he goes on the adventure that leads him to the mysterious fort of the golden bowl. As the Asvins attempt to woo another man's wife when they encounter Chyavana's wife Sukanya, but fail, so Perceval also has this very character trait, as at the beginning of Chretien's poem he naively forces kisses and a ring from a damsel whose husband (the Knight of the Tent) then returns, accuses her of unfaithfulness, and punishes her. She is only later vindicated to her husband, even though she tells him all immediately and honestly professes her innocence. In the Chyavana version, Sukanya immediately informs Chyavana of the Asvins' attempts to woo her, and he trusts her fidelity right away. In the Wooing of Etain, Aengus temporarily becomes the caretaker and pseudo-husband of Midir's wife, Etain, before she is again blown off course by Fuamnach. And in general, it is a recurring theme that the maidens wooed in several of the lunar cycle tales have a prior marriage or engagement that they tell the wooing stranger they would not like to give up for anything (Gerðr, Etain, Sukanya).
When Perceval arrives at court, another maiden sees him and laughs. It is then revealed that a prophecy had been pronounced that this maiden would not laugh until she laid eyes on the next supreme lord of the knights. The knight Kay strikes her for this prophetic outburst, and this abuse is the reason Perceval then desires revenge upon Kay later. If their eventual confrontation, as we will see, could be another version of the Aesir-Vanir War motif, then this prophetic woman, whose striking helps lead to the conflict, would occupy the same role here that we have seen elsewhere in the sorceress or seeress Gullveig, whose triple murder is considered one of the inciting incidents of the Aesir-Vanir War. Following this episode, Perceval pierces the Red Knight through the eye with his lance. We can say then that the eye piercing motif is by no means absent from the Perceval tale, and that Perceval's spear then stands in place of the “spit” or thorny twig which pierces the eyes of Midir and Chyavana. Though no other Horse Twin figures are directly responsible for the eye poking in the other branches, at least in the Irish case Aengus is held responsible for it by the wounded Midir as it is done by youths under Aengus' watch, leading Aengus to need to seek Etain to recompense Midir.
Not only this, but in fact we can recognize here just how similar Chretien de Troyes' version is to the Norse version of events. For the Red Knight who has his eye pierced has just stolen a golden cup from King Arthur and has threatened to steal his lands as well, leaving Arthur despondently musing while his wife, the queen, is said to be "well-nigh dead," it being said that it is believed she will not escape that fate, due to the shame and distress brought on by the theft of the cup. The loss of a simple cup should not have such a dramatic effect, unless of course it has a deeper significance or a magical power, and the fact that this cup fits the exact position that the golden apples do in the myth of Thjazi explains this mystery. The Red Knight, like Thjazi, steals the golden-colored food or drink related treasure from the king, and, as a result leaves the king and his family in a paralyzed, near-death state. The Red Knight, like Thjazi, is then both killed and pierced in the eye. Perceval picks apart and takes his armor after killing the Red Knight, perhaps similar to how Thjazi has his eyes picked out and placed in the sky after being killed. If the reader accepts the theory we have put forward, that Thjazi is related to a destructive aspect of the sun, then the red color of the Red Knight's armor may even be explicable, red being a common solar color.
Next, after the first Grail episode, Perceval goes again to Arthur's court, after defeating more of his knights, and there does battle with Arthur's knights Sagremor and Kay, impressively defeating both. Due to the fact that Perceval is then invited to join Arthur's court as a result of this episode (Arthur and his court considered as stand-ins for the high gods and their society), and does so, we can quite confidently say that this episode stands in the exact position of the Aesir-Vanir War. The Horse Twin hero Perceval fights the high knights (high gods) and then is accepted into their society/court. In the final portion of Chretien's romance dealing with Perceval, he learns who the grail serves (the Fisher King's father who he also learns is his own uncle), learns that the grail contains a single wafer of communion which is able to sustain this uncle, and then receives holy communion (which is now associated with the grail as its main contents) for the first time. The communion of course being the spiritual life-sustaining highest rite of Catholicism, it corresponds to the soma of the Vedics, Eleusinian Mysteries (or Dionysian wine) of the Greeks, and the Aesir's sacrifice of the the Norse, which the Horse Twins of each of the other branches are said to take part in for the first time at the end of their myths. In other versions of the Grail legend, such as Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzifal, written shortly after Chretien’s poem, Parzifal the grail quester is said to become the new keeper of the grail in the end, just as the Norse and Vedic Horse Twins crucially are said to become priests of the high rite in the outcome of the conflict.
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The Grail Question
A mysterious question famously becomes central to the success of Perceval's quest in Chretien's poem. This question is of course, “whom does the Grail serve?”, which Perceval at first fails to ask, but which is said (by the weeping maiden he encounters holding her dead lover) to bring the Fisher King great succor if asked. Much confusion has surrounded this question in the scholarship, and perhaps it will remain mysterious for awhile more. However, in the Indian version we have discussed, specifically the version of the tale found in the Satapatha Brahmana, there in fact is a magical, riddling question associated with allowing the Asvins' to accede to the soma rite. Indeed, there are two such questions which come in succession. Despite this seemingly miraculous correspondence of there being key questions in these vastly distant branches, these two questions in the Indian version are difficult to fit to the question we find in the Grail version. As such, it could be that the questions in the two branches are not the same at their root. However, the possibility still has to be examined.
First, Sukanya says to the Asvins, after rejecting their advances, “But surely ye are neither quite complete nor quite perfect, and yet deride my husband!” The Asvins respond then with the first question: “In what respect are we incomplete, in what respect imperfect?” Only after they have rejuvenated Sukanya's husband does Chyavana tell them the answer to the question, which is, “yonder gods perform a sacrifice and exclude you from it” (Satapatha Brahmana). They then set off to the place of the sacrifice and demand an invitation. When they are denied, they formulate their own special riddle. “But surely you worship a headless sacrifice” they say, to which is responded the second query, “How with a headless sacrifice?” The Twins demand inclusion in the rite in exchange for the answer to their riddle. So they are included, and as a result explain that they, the Asvins, are the heads because the leaders of the sacrifice, and this because they are the “Adhvaryus,” a term for a kind of Vedic priest who assisted the reciter of the litanies and who took care of the physical aspects of the sacrifice, one of whose duties was to pour the soma juice into the receptacles. This could also be interpreted as pointing to the Asvins' position as leading the way, astrologically and metaphysically speaking, for the new morning and thus for the sacrifice, as they are said to do in the Rig Veda with their possible identification with the morning star. Thus the riddling question and its answer reveal that the inherent divine nature of the Asvins in itself indicates their proper place in the rite, that it is in their nature and destiny to take their place in the rite and indeed that they are needed by it for its completion.
Though the match across so much time and space to the Grail question is hazy, we can see that the Grail question too reveals Perceval's proper inborn role in its keeping. For with the response to this question it is revealed that Perceval is the nephew of the elder Grail King (just as Aengus is foster son of Midir or Freyr is son of Njörðr, and similar also to Aengus finding out that his true father is the Dagda) and thus a member of the family destined to be its keepers. It is also a question directly about the functionality of the rite, just as was the Asvins’ riddle. Finally its asking and answering allows the perfection, or the healing, of both the imperfect seekers and the wounded or headless rite. By asking whom the Grail serves, Perceval also shows his understanding of his own role to be one of serving, and accepts that role. In the same way, the Asvins proclaiming themselves “heads” or “leaders” of the sacrifice only implies that they go before the others to make the sacrifice ready, and that while now on equal footing with the other gods, they still function as one part (a head) within a body of functions that make up the rite and the divine society as a whole.
In essence, the questions of both branches are the question of self-identity, and lead to a rediscovery of who the quester has been all along. The process of this recognition has several steps: 1. The recognition of one's incompleteness (Sukanya tells the Asvins they are incomplete) 2. Learning the right question to ask (The Asvins and Perceval are prompted to raise the question) 3. Recognizing that there is a higher sacred sphere to aspire to (the Asvins learn of the higher rite; Perceval witnesses the Grail procession) 4. Asking the question of identity 5. Learning one's own deeper connection to the whole and to the sacred, discovering who one always has been despite being cut off from this identity. The quester has forgotten who he is, his true history, and his innate connection to the whole. Aengus has been raised as a foster-son of Midir and has never known his true father until he confronts Dagda. Pryderi was kidnapped as an infant and has been raised by a foster father, Teyrnon. The Asvins have been excluded from the society of high gods, but come to recognize their inborn role of Adhvaryu. Perceval, raised in the country without a father, comes to discover that he is actually the nephew of the Grail King himself and tied to the Grail by destiny. At the end of von Eschenbach's version, Parzival's name appears on the Grail itself. This element of the myth is partially obscured in the Norse version, yet Freyr still begins separate from the Aesir before ending up as one of the most beloved among them and an important officiant of the sacrifice in the end. This process of the recognition of one's identity and inborn role within the whole is Nietzsche's "become who you are," and relies on the question that each of us must first recognize, and then ask, before understanding our own role and destiny.
That which can heal either the land or the headless sacrifice in either the Samvarana or the Asvins' tale is either returning to the neglected sacrifice or the rejuvenating power of the Horse Twins combined with their recognition and taking their place as the head of the sacrifice. Thus what finally heals the ailing Fisher King is Perceval asking the question which allows him to take his rightful place in, heal, and complete the rite; and likewise it is only the completed rite that can bring life back to the land which has turned waste without the rite's nourishment. While most interpreters have argued that the land has become waste simply because it is connected to the health of the king, we can see that there is much more importance placed on the "health" of the rite itself as the cure for the wasteland. While the Soma King does need specific healing in other branches (consider Chyavana and Midir needing their eyes healed; Chyavana and Njörðr needing to have their youth renewed by the herbal paste or golden apples), as accords with the ancient view of the rite (clear in Vedic tradition) as both bringing the rains and allowing the new day itself to be born, it is first and foremost the healed and properly observed rite which is the source of the health of both the king and the land (Samvarana finally returning to performing the rite heals the land; the sacrificial fire god Manawydan heals the land and retrieves Pryderi; the Asvins heal the sacrifice itself by completing it and causing it to function properly).
Conclusion
Thus in the Grail legend we have nearly all of the recognizable elements of this wider Lunar Cycle that we have identified elsewhere: 1.Separation of the Horse Twin hero from his mother, while also not knowing his true father 2.His involvement in an attempt to woo a married woman 3.A prophetic woman is attacked violently, leading directly to the later conflict in which the hero seeks vengeance for this violence 4.A golden consumable treasure is stolen from the king, leaving him and his family in a near-death paralysis, and it is then retrieved after a one-on-one battle 5.The eye piercing 6.Meeting his beloved at the midpoint 7.A mysterious castle appears in which is kept a golden dish/bowl 8.An old man needing healing and rejuvenation 9.The land has become an enchanted wasteland which must be healed 10.A riddle or riddling question, relating to the functioning of the sacred object and the deeper identity of the hero, that a woman makes the hero aware of 11.The hero is excluded from the court of the “high gods” (knights of Arthur) 12.He confronts and defeats the “high gods” (knights of Arthur)13.He is accepted into the court of "high gods" as a result 14.He gains the high rite for the first time 15.He learns the identity of his true father (and of himself), which links him to the rite 16.He may become keeper of the vessel of the high rite (the Grail).
Now, if we simply understand the role of keeper of the Grail as a natural cognate to priest of the high sacrifice, we see that a Horse Twin has renewed the vitality of a wounded old man and has then gained access to the holy sacrificial relic and become its priest, also joining the society of the high gods/knights after defeating them, along with all the other connected motifs we have become accustomed to seeing in this cycle. Thus the concordance of the Vedic myth with the Holy Grail legend is uncannily close. And as we have seen that the core of this suggested myth was widespread all across Europe, it stands to reason that it could easily have been known in other Welsh or French sources no longer available to us which could have served as a common basis drawn from by the texts that remain to us in this tradition. Indeed, we even see a strong connection with the Norse version of the myth in elements such as the Red Knight who steals the golden treasure and the prophetic woman who is struck, which leads to the later confrontation of Perceval and Arthur's knights. These "Nordic" elements suggest either that the French Chretien knew how to blend material from both the extant Germanic and Celtic versions in order to craft his poem, that he very much knew what he was doing as he worked with Lunar Cycle material both from Wales and the continent, or that he was working from a version of the cycle which already retained the mythos in a wondrously unified form. Indeed, Chretien's Grail poem seems an incredible synthesis of nearly all of the associated myths we have thus far called parts of the Lunar Cycle, either representing a masterwork of synthetic genius, or a more ancient, unified tradition that has here been miraculously preserved. The unavoidable conclusion that we are left with is that the Holy Grail legend and the Aesir-Vanir war cycle are one and the same myth, split up and changed over time, yet holding the same esoteric truth at its core.
The Grail quest then has an undeniable “lunar” character to it. But this does not sum up its meaning or the spiritual possibilities inherent in it. After all, all the high gods, even the most solar among them, partake of the lunar soma in order to maintain immortality. The Horse Twins themselves have a distinctly solar association as well, riding in the sun chariot and marrying solar princesses. Indeed, the Asvins were also sacrificed to at noon, and not only at dawn. Freyr riding the boar Gullinbursti whose golden mane glows in the dark may be another symbol of the morning star crossing the boundary between day and night or even of something else relating to the period of sunrise. As harbingers of the dawn, the Horse Twins more accurately form the link between the moon and sun. They are seemingly morning star at sunrise, bridging the gap between dark and light, between Soma and Ushas, bringing to the high gods the immortalizing nectar of the moon rescued from out of the darkness.
This combined lunar and solar character may even be hinted at in the sacred items brought before Perceval in succession at the Grail castle in Chretien's poem. After the lance there is the Grail (a dish said to be of gold) followed by a silver carving platter. A gold dish or bowl followed by a silver platter immediately strikes one as solar and lunar imagery, the two symbols united in procession. The fact that the silver platter is said to be for carving, while the moon, as we have noted, is known as a divider (of time or fates) is a further interesting coincidence. In the Pryderi tale, of course, there is only a golden bowl with no mention of a silver platter, though there is a fountain beneath it, perhaps similar to the moon seen as the source of waters, or even to Mimir's Well. We may say that the Grail itself is generally gold, with possible (though not necessarily) solar significance, while the liquid held within, the soma, would, in its essence, be of the moon.
Ultimately the Grail legend tells of a path of elevation by submission or cooperation, and tells of the use of a lunar liquid. But this is a submission in order to be integrated into a divine hierarchy that unites both the lunar and solar. The Grail quester accepts that service is central to the functioning of the Grail, to the working of the complex system of the soma sacrifice, becoming thus an instrument of something higher rather than making domination and control his spiritual goal. The path of the Grail quester is a path of devotion, to the Grail and to its governing deity, the stalwart but somewhat passive character found in the the concept of a “keeper” of the Grail underlining this fact. Yet, as a Horse Twin, the Grail quester is also a bringer of the necessary lunar element into the solar spiritual economy, and thus a perfecter of the solar realm by the unification of these two spheres. Eliade again comments on this general possibility in regard to Tantric techniques, in which
an attempt is made to "unify" the moon and the sun, to get beyond the opposition between things, to be reintegrated in the primeval unity. This myth of reintegration is to be found almost everywhere in the history of religion in an infinity of variations-and fundamentally it is an expression of the thirst to abolish dualisms, endless returnings and fragmentary existences (Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion).
The understanding of the deeper substructure of the Grail legend, with its roots going back at least 5000 years (the time of unity of these branches being around 2900 BCE), obviously makes relatively superfluous the endless speculations on where this or that individual surface-level element originated. It is perfectly possible that certain names or physical characteristics of objects or motifs may have been brought in from the mediterranean, from the middle east, from the Scythian steppe, etc. -- if such importation was even necessary, given what we now can see for ourselves -- without significantly altering the legend, sometimes enhancing or elaborating, sometimes weakening, the existing meaning. Most obviously, the entire legend did after all undergo a transformation into the Christian symbol-language, and was reinterpreted through that religious lens to reach the form in which we have received it. Yet beneath these layers the specific elements of the original structure still show through and preserve their original significance.
The Lunar Cycle as a whole has in fact several layers of significance that we can still appreciate today in our own religious understanding. As we have pointed out, the marriage of Soma and Surya, which forms the starting point of the cycle, was seen by the Vedics as providing the divine model of all earthly marriages, and from its example we have the whole series of customary marriage rites: the "Gandharva"-aided period of celibacy after the wedding, the going around the sacred fire or "Agni," among many other elaborate procedures.
Additionally, the idea that the cycle, particularly the "Aesir-Vanir War" episode, depicts the process of coming together of the various castes of the divine society, which is reflected as well in the castes of the human society (as we see in the pseudo-historical version involving Romulus), that is, the perfection of the organic society. With this is also the acceptance of the lower caste, the third or "producer" caste, into the society of the higher castes. This is reflected in the Vedic society by the fact that the Vaishya caste is considered one of the "twice-born" castes, along with the higher Kshatriyas and Brahmins, and are allowed to participate in the rites of the Vedic religion and to be afforded access to the sacrifices, initiations, and reincarnation. It is a point of curiosity whether the Proto-Indo-Europeans ever experienced a period before the elevation of the producer caste to full participation in the elite religion, whether the Aesir-Vanir War motif depicts any historical material or instead narrates a primordial event that brought about a unity that has always been, in both divine and human society.
Along with this elevation of the third caste, divine and human, is the granting of the Horse Twin gods access to the immortalizing rituals. Whether this newly granted immortality consists in reincarnation, eternal afterlife, some higher transcendence, or the possibility of all of these, is a question beyond the scope of this study. Once the immortalizing rite is put in play, it is difficult to limit its spiritual possibilities from intersecting even with the "regal path," hence we see the elevation, intensification and universalization of the symbol of the Grail in the "Ghibelline" Middle Ages, which process began to conflate the Grail with the "cup of sovereignty." A three day long soma sacrifice was after all also an important part of the Vedic asvamedha "Horse Sacrifice," which scholar Nick Allen says is "the highest of the royal rituals and establishes the cosmic supremacy of a king" (Allen, "Why Did Odysseus Become a Horse?", 4). But what must be recognized is that this granted immortality of the third function gods was also the opening of the possibility of immortality to members of the third caste of the human society. As the divine representatives of their caste are seen to do, so the humans of that caste ought to do. Thus the quest of the Grail continues, and remains open, even to those not of the elitest castes, a path toward the waters of immortality, for those who are prepared to ask the question of self-identity, to serve the king, to retrieve light from darkness, to re-unify, to re-integrate, and to lead.
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Charts and Glossary
Aesir-Vanir War Motif in Various Branches (with Norse parallel names as reference):
Vedic:
The Asvins (Freyr) desire to be allowed access to the soma sacrifice of the high gods. The incarnation of the moon god Soma, Chyavana (Njörðr), helps them by confronting king of the gods Indra in single combat, summoning a demon to fight him, and making him submit with his magic. The Asvins join the society of the high gods, gain access to the soma sacrifice, and become its priests. In one version, Dadhyanc (possibly Mimir), the keeper of the secret of the soma, is beheaded by Indra but has his head preserved and reattached. The Asvins subsequently marry Savitri.
Welsh:
Welsh Pryderi (Freyr) marries Cigfa and then touches a magical golden bowl that takes him to the otherworld. Once Pryderi returns, the high god Gwydion (Oðinn) wants the swine of the underworld (symbol of power of fertility) so he trades the third function god Pryderi a bunch of warrior-related items (war horses, shields and dogs), but it’s a trick, the horses etc are an illusion. This results in a war between Pryderi’s and Gwydion’s forces, which ends in a truce where hostages are exchanged. Then the peace falls apart and Pryderi is killed by Gwydion in a duel, but the swine now belong to Gwydion, integrating the power of fertility into the society of higher gods.
Roman:
The legendary incarnation of the high god, Romulus (Oðinn), and his Romans want wives so they trick the Sabines and take their women. This results in a war which ends in a truce where Romulus and the Sabine king Titus (Freyr) share rulership. Then the peace falls apart and Titus is killed by Romulus’ men, but the women and other Sabines have already become part of Rome, integrating the power of fertility into the higher society.
Irish:
Irish Aengus (Freyr), is foster son of moon god Midir (Njörðr) and doesn’t know his true parentage. When he is a young man he discovers he is actually son of Father Sky, the Dagda. He goes to Dagda to be acknowledged as his son and get his inheritance. Dagda acknowledges him, but tells him the land he is to inherit is occupied by Elcmar aka Nuada (Varuna aspect of Oðinn).
Aengus goes armed to Elcmar’s fort with Midir. Aengus threatens Elcmar's life with a “feint,” and as a result they agree to a deal as a compromise: Aengus will get to spend a day and night as king of the land. This is a trick however, and since “all the world is spent in day and night” the deal means that Aengus gets to keep the kingship of the land forever. In another version, the method of removing Elcmar is called a magical lay or chant, both cases then depicting a kind of verbal magic. Aengus subsequently marries Caer Ibormeith and drinks the drink of immortality.
Norse:
A sorceress is burned and speared to death three times by the Norse high gods the Aesir, triggering a conflict between the Vanir, led by the Moon god Njörðr and Horse Son Freyr, and the Aesir, led by Oðinn. The Vanir besiege the halls of the Aesir, forcing a truce in which hostages are exchanged, and Njörðr and Freyr are integrated into the Aesir society and become priests of their sacrifice. Mimir, keeper of the well of wisdom, is beheaded, but his head is preserved by Oðinn and it speaks to him. Freyr marries Gerðr.
Grail Legend:
A prophetic woman is struck by Arthur’s (in Oðinn's role here) knight Kay for predicting that the Grail quester Perceval (Freyr) will become the greatest of the knights. For this abuse, Perceval seeks revenge, confronting and defeating Kay and Sagremor in single combat. As a result, Arthur accepts Perceval into his retinue of knights, and subsequently Perceval takes the high rite of communion for the first time and becomes keeper of the Grail in which communion is kept. In the middle of this sequence, Perceval woos Blanchefleur.
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Renewing the Youth of the Gods and The Marriage of Soma and Suryā in Various Branches (with Norse parallel names as reference):
Vedic:
The eye of Chyavana (Njörðr) is poked out by a clod of dirt thrown by playing youths. In recompense, the king gives his daughter Sukanya (Skaði) to Chyavana to wed. After meddling in their marriage by trying to woo the princess, the Asvins (Freyr) administer the magical herbal paste to the aged Chyavana, renewing his youth. Chyavana and the princess undergo a “choosing” test in which the princess must pick Chyavana out in his newly youthful form while he stands next to the Asvins. She chooses correctly and they live happily.
Irish:
The eye of Midir (Njörðr) is knocked out by a sprig of holly thrown by playing youths. In recompense, Midir must be given Etain (Skaði) to marry. After many twists and turns, Midir’s rival, Eochaidh Airem must undergo a choosing scene in which he has to choose Etain in swan form from among many other swan maidens. He chooses incorrectly, and Midir and Etain live happily. Fuamnach, the sorceress wife of Midir, causes Etain to go through a triple transformation, and is later burned to death.
Norse:
The golden apples which renew the youth of the gods are stolen by Thjazi. Thjazi is killed and the apples are regained. In recompense for his death, Thjazi’s eyes are removed and placed in the night sky as stars, and Thjazi’s daughter Skaði is given Njörðr as husband. They undergo a choosing scene in which Skaði chooses Njörðr out from the other gods, though not entirely happily.
Grail Legend:
The golden cup of Arthur (Oðinn) is stolen by Arthur’s hostile neighbor the red knight, leaving Arthur and his wife in a paralytic state. Perceval (Freyr) kills the red knight (Thjazi) in single combat by driving his lance through his eye, and retrieves the golden cup. After meddling in their marriage at first by kissing his wife and taking her ring, Perceval helps reunite the Knight of the Tent and his wife, and they live happily.
Welsh:
Pwyll (Bragi) drives the hounds of Arawn (Njörðr) away from a dead stag and lets his own hounds eat instead. In recompense to Arawn, Pwyll agrees to be lord of Annwn for a year. During that year Pwyll sleeps next to the wife of Annwn without making love to her and defeats Arawn’s hostile neighbor Hafgan (Thjazi) in single combat. Arawn and his wife continue to live happily and Pwyll is granted shared lordship of Annwn as a reward.
** If the Horse Twins are interpreted as gods of the Morning/Evening star, the mythic pattern we have discussed under the name “Aesir-Vanir War” may have interesting resonances with the well-known biblical story of Lucifer. In both the Roman and Welsh versions of this myth, the third function god (Titus and Pryderi) who fights the higher gods is subsequently killed, perhaps reflecting the fall of the morning star after its rise. In a Scottish folk tradition, Aengus tries to become King of the Universe and is punished by being trapped in rock (thus similar to the Mabon's underworld imprisonment). If biblical Lucifer comes from a mythos relating to the morning star, then he too rises, confronts the High King of the Gods, but is eventually defeated and falls down to the depths, a symbol of hubris thereafter. These could be reflections of the same phenomenon of the rising and falling Morning Star as seen slightly differently by these separate cultures. The Canaanite forerunner of Lucifer, Azizos, has a twin as well. While Azizos rides a horse, his twin, Arsus or Monimos, rides a humped camel, and is associated with the Evening Star. Azizos is compared to Ares while his camel riding brother is compared to Hermes. We thus once again have one warlike and one clever twin, the more clever of whom is associated with a lower class animal mount as well. In Dacian inscriptions, this Azizos is called bonus puer, “the good boy,” reminiscent of “the young son” etc., and is identified with Phosphorus, the light-bearer or Morning Star. Roman Emperor Julian, citing Iamblichus, states that these twins are seen as “the channel for many blessings to the region of our earth.”
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Key Motifs in Each Branch:
Magical Item that Renews the Youth of the Gods:
Golden apples (Norse)
Magical herbs (Vedic)
—— Irish n/a (Irish)
Regeneration ability of Hafgan? (Welsh)
Golden cup (Grail legend)
Aesir-Vanir War motif:
Aesir-Vanir War (Norse)
Chyavana battles Indra (Vedic)
Taking of the Sid Brugh na Boinne (Irish)
War of the Swine of Annwn (Welsh)
Perceval duels Kay and Sagremor (Grail legend)
Rape of the Sabine Women (Roman)
The Eye Poking:
Killing Thjazi and Removal of his eyes (Norse)
Poking of Chyavana's eye (Vedic)
Poking out of Midir's eye (Irish)
Driving the lance through the Red Knight's eye (Grail legend)
-- -- Welsh n/a (the single blow to Hafgan's head?) (Welsh)
The Offense that Requires Recompense:
Killing of Thjazi (Norse)
Poking of Chyavana's Eye (Vedic)
Poking out of Midir's Eye (Irish)
Driving off of hounds (Welsh)
-- -- Grail legend n/a (Grail legend)
Occupying Seat/Mound Out of Turn:
Freyr sneaking onto Hlidskjalf (Norse)
Samvarana occupying the sacred mountain out of turn (Vedic)
-- -- Irish n/a (Irish)
Pryderi occupying Gorsedd Arberth out of turn (Welsh)
Siege Perilous (Grail legend)
Attack on the Sorceress:
Burning of Gullveig (Norse)
-- -- Vedic n/a (Vedic)
Burning of Fuamnach (Irish)
-- -- Welsh n/a (Welsh)
Striking of prophetic woman at Arthur’s court (Grail legend)
Transference of Sun Princess to Another Husband:
Skaði switches to Oðinn (Norse)
Suryā switches to Gandharva and Agni (Vedic)
Etain becomes temporary ward of Aengus and wife of Eochu (Irish)
Rhiannon switches to Manawydan (Welsh)
Grail n/a (Grail legend)
Interference in and then helping the Marriage of Soma and Suryā:
Norse n/a (Norse)
Asvins interfere in and then help marriage of Chyavana and Sukanya (Vedic)
Aengus helps woo Etain for Midir then becomes temporary keeper of Etain as a fly (Irish)
Pwyll becomes temporary husband of Arawn’s wife (Welsh)
Perceval interferes in and then helps marriage of the Knight of the Tent and his wife (Grail legend)
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Chart of Relevant Deities:
Horse Twin Parentage Comparison Chart:
(Oval = Moon God; Grey Rectangle = Horse Twin)
Glossary of Names:
Aed – Son of the Dagda and brother of Aengus, name means “fire”
Aengus Og – Irish Horse Twin, foster son of Midir, son of Dagda, husband of Caer
Agni – Vedic god of fire, priestly god embodied in the sacred flame, third husband of Suryā
Arawn – Welsh lord of the underworld of Annwn, probable “Soma” Moon God, model of the elder Grail King and probably of the Knight of the Tent
Asvins – Vedic Horse Twins, sons of Dyaus, husbands of Savitri
Blanchefleur – Beloved of Perceval
Bragi – Court poet of the Norse gods, husband of Iðunn, narrator of the first portion of the Norse Lunar Cycle
Caer Ibormeith – Irish sun princess, consort of Aengus who Aengus first sees in a dream
Chyavana – Legendary stand-in for one of the deities who were combined to make the later Vedic god Soma; sage and husband of Sukanya
Cigfa – Welsh sun princess, wife of Pryderi
Dadhyanc – Possible legendary stand-in for Yama the lord of the dead, or one of the deities who were combined to make the later Vedic god Soma; sage and keeper of the secret of the soma, is beheaded while wearing the head of a horse, and is then given back his original head
Dagda – Irish chief god of sky and wind, true father of Aengus, and father of Brigid and Aed among others
Elcmar – Irish king who is occupying the land that is to be Aengus' inheritance, Aengus tricks him out of it. Theorized to be another name for the god Nuada
Elder Grail King – Lives in the Grail castle and is sustained by a single wafer of communion from the Grail each day. One of the stand-ins for the “Soma” god
Eochu Airem – A husband of Etain after Midir, Midir steals Etain back by tricking him, name means “Horseman Ploughman”
Etain – Irish horse and sun princess, wife of Midir
Fuamnach – Lunar sorceress and wife of Midir, burned to death by Manannan
Freyr – Norse Horse Twin, son of Njorðr and husband of Gerðr
Gandharva Visvavasu – Chief Gandharva, court singer of the gods, protege of Soma and guardian of the soma and of virginity, second husband of Suryā
Gerðr – Norse sun princess and wife of Freyr
Gullveig – Sorceress burned and stabbed to death by the Aesir in Oðinn's hall, the violence against her may trigger the Aesir-Vanir War, name connects her to the mead
Hafgan – Hostile neighbor of Arawn, name meaning “summer-bright,” can be killed only by being given no more than one blow, is killed by Pwyll
Hengist and Horsa – Pseudo-historical versions of the Horse Twins, names meaning “Stallion” and “Horse.” Compare the Horse Twin names Hengist, Aengus, Ing, Ingenius
Kay – Arrogant knight of Arthur's court, strikes the prophetic woman and is later defeated by Perceval in a duel in retribution
Knight of the Tent – Husband of the Lady of the Tent, forsakes his wife for assumed infidelity, but is reconciled to her later by Perceval. One of the probable stand-ins for the “Soma” god
Iðunn – Norse sun princess and wife of Bragi, whose golden apples, which renew the youth of the gods, are stolen by Thjazi
Lady of the Tent – Lady who Perceval kisses and then takes a ring from, is forsaken by her husband for assumed infidelity but is reconciled to him later by Perceval
Mabon – Welsh “young son” who is imprisoned in the Underworld and must be rescued by Arthur. Possibly identifiable with Pryderi
Manannan – Irish fire-priest god, lord of the ocean and psychopomp
Manawydan – Welsh fire-priest god, second husband of Rhiannon
Midir – Irish “Soma” Moon God, husband of Fuamnach and Etain, foster father of Freyr
Mímir – Norse god, possible aspect of the “Soma” Moon God or related “Yama” underworld god, keeper of the well of illumination who is beheaded after the Aesir-Vanir war
Mother of Perceval – Grail legend stand-in for Rhiannon
Njörðr – Norse god associated with the sea, one aspect of the “Soma” Moon God
Oðinn – Chief of the Norse high gods the Aesir, possibly also Norse fire-priest, second husband of Skaði
Pelles/Fisher King – younger wounded king of the Grail castle, keeper of the Grail, Perceval first meets him fishing in a lake. Is given the name Pelles in later versions
Perceval – The Grail quester, lover of Blanchefleur, nephew of the Elder Grail king
Peredur – Welsh quester, from a common root with Perceval, his tale tells nearly the same narrative as Chretien's poem about Perceval
Peredurus – A king appearing in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historiae Regum Brittania, unites with his brother Ingenius to take the kingdom from their older brother, divides the island between them. Probable pseudo-historical version of the Horse Twin god
Prophetic Woman – Woman at Arthur's court who prophetically laughs or smiles when she sees Perceval, and is then struck by the knight Kay
Pryderi – Welsh Horse Twin, son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, husband of Cigfa
Pwyll – Welsh Gandharva, first husband of Rhiannon, father of Pryderi
Red Knight – Hostile neighbor of Arthur who is at war with him, steals the golden cup of Guinevere and then is pierced through the eye with a lance by Perceval
Rhiannon – Welsh Horse/Sun Princess, wife of Pwyll and Manawydan, mother of Pryderi
Samvarana – Legendary stand-in for the Gandharva Visvavasu, husband of Tapati
Savitri – Vedic sun princess, daughter of Sun god Savitr, wife of the Asvins
Sharyati – Father of Sukanya. Legendary Vedic stand-in for an aspect of the Sun god, Vivasvat-Surya, depicted as grandson of Vivasvat-Surya
Skaði – Norse sun princess, daughter of Thjazi, wife of Njorðr and Oðinn
Soma – Vedic god of the moon, of the waters, of wealth, and of the liquid of immortality and illumination. First husband of Suryā
Sukanya – Legendary Vedic stand-in for Surya, sun princess, wife of Chyavana-Soma, daughter of Sharyati and great-grand-daughter of Vivastvat-Surya
Suryā – Vedic bride of Soma, daughter of the Sun god Surya, sun princess goddess of the sunbeam or the radiance of the sun
Thjazi – Norse sun deity, father of Skaði, possible half-brother of Iðunn
Tapati – Vedic sun princess, daughter of Vivasvat, wife of Samvarana
Vasistha – Legendary Vedic stand-in for Agni, rishi and advisor of Samvarana
Wife of Arawn – Welsh queen of the Underworld of Annwn
Wife of Knight of the Tent – Legendary stand-in for the wife of Arawn-Soma
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