Yes yes, all right, I do have a brain. Use it occaisionally, but it spends most of its time drunk. Liam's been lending me some books recently (and I even asked for 'em, terrible I know) and I typed my notes into the wrong window, so they're now your problem.

This set are on a volume published in 1809 by one Rev. Edward Davies, "The Mythology of the British Druids".

Preface

"... errors and predjudices"

Establishing authorial bias is no challenge in this instance.

Translation from St. Augustine Tract 7

Translated somewhat tenuously as I went along (my latin's bloody rusty):

"They who deciphered the tangled spells of binding, incantations and malign sorceries [of the indiginous Britons] would implant invocations of the name of Christ, so that [they] might no long lead good Christians astray [...]"

Section I: Documentary Discussion
He spends an entire section arguing about the authenticity of the various Old Welsh documents that survive from the Bardic and Druidical era, and having a rather amusing go at a contemporary scholar who had declared himself to be the Official High Bardic Chair of Glamorgan, or something else with similar knobs on.

Cuhelyn ab Caw, 6th century AD:

Herwydd urdden awdyl Ceridwen / Ogyrwen amhad"

Trans: "Ceridwen, our Goddess of [various seeds?] and [various seeds of genius?]"

[1] This is clearly the goddess of provision, harvest

[2] Less clear: Goddess of creativity? Possible implication, "mother of the spirit"?

Description of the nature of Druidical magic

He describes this as "necromancy, or conjuring; [...] the practice of mysterious rites, under pretence of producing extraordinary effects from natural causes." Not too bad a description when you think about it.

- He is thus describing a ritualistic magic, where the theory is disguised from observers of the practice, and

- He doesn't believe a word of it.

Taliesin's "the Chair"

- Davies states that Taliesin provides a list of ingredients for the inspirational Cauldron of Ceridwen. It would be interesting to discover if these ingredients are metaphorical or an actual recipe for the clearly hallucinogenic potion of inspiration.

Druidic natural philosophy

A description is provided of the druidic analytical model as applied to the element of water. They clearly identify the element in three forms with different properties:

- Salt : static, the sea

- Rain : it falls on you when you ask nicely

- Spring: it comes up from underground where the god wants it to.

Section II: The God

Political note: Davies will consistently refer to Druidism and paganism generally as a system of superstition, very much a man of his times.

Diluvian Patriarch: paganism as a helio-arkite corruption

Davies contends that Druidism derives from gradual corruption of the patriarchal religion.

- This statement is never elaborated, described or justified, merely 'apparent'.

Avatars

- He comprehends the concept of divine aspects, but interprets them as either deified humans (eg. Noah, the diluvian patriarch) or simply as corruptions.

Greece and Rome

- he argues that the convergent pantheon of Greece and Rome "sprang from the same source" as the Druidical deities.

Conclusions on the God

Davies' thesis for this entire work is rapidly emerging; he wishes to convince his reader that all forms of pantheistic paganism are corruptions of the "true" patriarchal religion, and most specifically that Druidical mythology is a corruption of Noah's Ark. This thesis clearly colours everything he writes, and indeed his interpretation of everything he reads. It is very much a product of his time, and informed by the limited alternatives available to mythologists in the pre-Victorian era. The great archaeological discoveries of the developing scientific era are missing: Gilgamesh and Marduk, the details of Egyptology that were revealed after the translation of the Rosetta Stone, the equivalent lore of the Aztecs, Inca and Olmecs, and of India and the Chinese. Davies is limited to a mythological portfolio consisting of the Graeco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, Norse and Gaelic traditions alone, and given these limitations (and Rev. Davies' clear religious agenda), his interpretation is almost inevitable.

He draws consistantly interesting paths of cause and effect through his area of study. The clear similarity between the aspects and responsibilities of the Greek pantheon and the various aspects of the pagan multi-faceted deities are well described. He accurately observes the ubiquity of a diluvian myth, but in his unfortunately limited context must of course assume that all the versions are corruptions of an original. He presents references to illustrate that the differentiation of character in the Greek pantheon, created from the aspects of a homogenous original, was the work of Homer and company around 1200 BC or so. He even correctly points out that the Druidical pagan tradition is significantly older than this. However, because he has placed the cart of effect before the horse of cause, he misses entirely the obvious conclusion: which is that the multi-faceted pagan deities were differentiated by the Greek scholars into the multi-personality pantheon which was eventually copied and proselytised widely by the Romans.

Beyond his thesis, Davies is an exceptional scholar of Welsh antiquity and provides a great deal of information and translated source for his contentions. Points of interest so far:

• Augustine, in Tract #7, comments on the practice of early translators inserting Christian references into antique pagan texts.
• Druidical magic is ceremonial and entirely religious.
• Druidism was as much concerned with natural philosphy and physiology as their Athenian contemporaries.
• The "Afanc" of Llyn Barfog is identified closely with diluvian mythology and Marduk's Leviathan.
• The God (symbol: the brindled bull) keeps his shrines on islands, and the Goddess (symbol: the spotted cow) keeps her shrine in a grove (frequently on an island). The islands are identified with the "floating islands" of Gaelic faerie myth.
• The Gwyllion, the prophetic and mystic female counterparts of the Druids, are necessary for such greater occaisions as Beltane and Samhain. Clear suggestion that the wiccan craft grew as a parallell off-shoot of the Druidical customs.