| These were sirens in Greece, and we call them mermaids today but in ancient times, goddesses like Atargatis in Greece were depicted with fishtails on occasion. This is because the mushroom has an association with waters, once again. She may also be likened to the salmon who swallowed the hazelnuts of knowledge. A fish has scales like the A. muscaria has scabs. Both fish and mushrooms have gills. Her name Melusine can be traced through etymology to Mater Lucina, or the Mother of Illumination. (68) According to authors Ruck and Celdran, citing Mallorca, the word for Elf supposedly derives from the word Albany, the location in France where the tale of Melusine hails from. (69) Quoting the authors of The Hidden World: “The words alf, aelf, alb/alp, and elbe all come from the Latin albus for “white,” derived from the Indo-European *albh-, meaning, “shine/bright.” Thus, for example, the Alps are the White Mountains, although we might just as easily understand them as the Mountains of the Elves, Latin albus gave German Elf, but it is also a root, meaning river, connecting the elves with water, Melusine’s element, as in the name of the River Elba and the Norman word elfr, meaning “river.” (70) Albany, Albania, and Albion can all be traced back to the albs or the elves and this gives us the sect in Europe called the Albigensians, who aligned themselves with Cathars and Templars. King Arthur’s connection to the “‘bear clan”’ is nicely summarized in The Hidden World, where the authors explain how shamanic families were at the heart of the early British and Welsh tribes which gained power and influence in early Europe. I highly recommend this book, in the pursuit of knowledge regarding fairy tales. Quoting the authors directly from The Hidden World again: “In fact, Arth, meaning ‘bear,’ occurs as a name in early British and Welsh. We might compare the naming of warriors and clans amongst the American Indian tribes for their shamanic animal personae, such as Crazy Horse, White Eagle, and Sitting bull. Similarly, there is a long poem by Aneirin, entitled Y Gododdin: it is preserved in a single manuscript of the 13th century, now in the Cardiff Central Library, but dating from the 7th century and probably previously preserved as oral tradition, describing a battle of the Scotsts or Gododdin against the Anglo-Saxons in the 6th century. In it, the champions have animal names, such as Dog, Wolf, and Bear, although this last man named the Bear is, of course, too late to be King Arthur. That doesn’t matter, however, since these names were inherited. Gildas Badonicus circa (504-570) in his De Excidio Britanniae (Concerning the Ruin of Britain) records that Maglocunus was called “Dragon” and Cuneglasus was called “Bear.”. The descendants of Maglocunus continued to receive the name “Dragon.”. Eventually they conquered all of Wales, and the Welsh national flag carries the image of a dragon. Gildas, moreover, indicates that Cuneglasus inherited his name of “Bear or Arth from his father Owain Ddantgwyn. Nennius, three centuries later, made the name more euphonic as Arthur.” (71) |
Much of the history of this family is covered in The Hidden World which I have borrowed pieces of the last few excerpts from. A Mushroom in King Arthur’s Grail King Arthur and the legend of the Holy Grail spun off several different versions of the story and they have distinct differences between them. Le Conte du Graal (“The Story of the Grail”) or Perceval le Gallois was the first story of the Grail to be written. It was written by a French poet named Chretien de Troyes, c. 1180. We will investigate this one first. Once again, I have paraphrased this to shorten the length and exclude irrelevant details, but quoted important sections as well: Perceval was a Welsh boy, without manners or much education. He wanted to become a knight, but his mother refused to support his dreams due to the loss of her two older sons. His mother instructed him briefly on courtship and the honor of receiving a ring and a kiss from a lady, but the talk was not understood well, and he was off to King Arthur’s court to have himself made into a knight. Perceval stumbled upon a tent and upon meeting with a damsel, whom he associated with his mother’s talk, grabbed her and forcefully kissed her then took her ring off her finger then ate her food. The lady was left sobbing when her lover arrived back at the tent, found her and became determined to find the boy and cut his head off. Her lover proceeded to insult the damsel and blame her for the entire affair. Next, we read the following, “Perceval arrived in Arthur's court, where he met the Red Knight of Quinqueroy, who took the king's gold cup. No knight at the king's court had the courage to retrieve the gold cup from the Red Knight, since he had wounded many Knights of the Round Table.” Perceval next appeared before the king’s court and demanded the king make him a knight. Sir Kay, the seneschal in the court, told him sarcastically he should take it from the Red Knight, since this was his armor. Perceval was not that bright and took the fellow serious and set out at once to confront the Red Knight. Before he left the king’s hall, he ran into one of Queen Guinevere's ladies-in-waiting. The lady laughed when she saw him and thought he would make a splendid knight. Since nobody had heard her laugh in six years, Sir Kay was jealous about this and slapped her and kicked Arthur’s court fool. (68) Pierre Gordon, “Melusine”, in Essais, 1983) (Page 323, notes, Hidden World (69) Claude Locouteux, Enanos y Elfos en la Edad Media (Palma de Mallorca: Jose de Olaneta, 2000, translation of Les nains et les elfes au Moyen Age, Paris: Editions Imago 1988), 69, 124-26 (70) Hidden World, p. 332 (71) Hidden World, p. 276 |