Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva statue by John Thomas

John Thomas (1813–1862) was a British sculptor and architect, who worked on Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster.Thomas's work 'Charity' was shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Lady Godiva

Godiva, Countess of Mercia (died 1067), in Old English Godgifu, was an English noblewoman who, according to a legend dating at least to the 13th century, rode naked – covered only in her long hair – through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband imposed on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Thomas watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.

Godiva was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. They had one known son, Aelfgar. The modern era Kingsbury family have claimed descent from Lady Godiva.

Godiva's name occurs in charters and the Domesday survey, though the spelling varies. The Old English name Godgifu or Godgyfu meant "gift of God"; Godiva was the Latinised form. Since the name was a popular one, there are contemporaries of the same name.

If she is the same Godiva who appears in the history of Ely Abbey, the Liber Eliensis, written at the end of the 12th century, then she was a widow when Leofric married her. Both Leofric and Godiva were generous benefactors to religious houses. In 1043 Leofric founded and endowed a Benedictine monastery at Coventry on the site of a nunnery destroyed by the Danes in 1016. 

Her signature, Ego Godiva Comitissa diu istud desideravi [I, The Countess Godiva, have desired this for a long time], appears on a charter purportedly given by Thorold of Bucknall to the Benedictine monastery of Spalding. However, this charter is considered spurious by many historians. Even so, it is possible that Thorold, who appears in the Domesday Book as sheriff of Lincolnshire, was her brother.

According to the typical version of the story, Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband's oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride on a horse through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word, and after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor, thereafter known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism.

Lady Godiva by John Collier, c. 1897

Some historians have discerned elements of pagan fertility rituals in the Godiva story, whereby a young "May Queen" was led to the sacred Cofa's tree, perhaps to celebrate the renewal of spring. The oldest form of the legend has Godiva passing through Coventry market from one end to the other while the people were assembled, attended only by two knights. This version is given in Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover (died 1236), a somewhat gullible collector of anecdotes, who quoted from unnamed earlier writers.

Other attempts to find a more plausible rationale for the legend include one based on the custom at the time for penitents to make a public procession in their shift, a sleeveless white garment similar to a slip today and one which was certainly considered "underwear". Thus Godiva might have actually travelled through town as a penitent, in her shift. Godiva's story could have passed into folk history to be recorded in a romanticised version. Another theory has it that Lady Godiva's "nakedness" might refer to her riding through the streets stripped of her jewellery, the trademark of her upper-class rank. However, these attempts to reconcile known facts with legend are both weak; in the era of the earliest accounts, the word "naked" is only known to mean "without any clothing whatsoever".

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

Hellelil and Hildebrand ~ Frederic William Burton

Frederic William Burton

Hellelil and Hildebrand, The Meeting on the Turret Stairs

This richly coloured watercolour painting depicts the ill-fated lovers Hellelil and Hildebrand, meeting on the stone stairway of a medieval tower. The princess and her bodyguard had fallen in love but her father regarded the young soldier as an unsuitable match for his daughter and ordered his sons to kill him. The painting captures the couple’s poignant final embrace.

Burton was inspired by the story of the ill-fated lovers told in an old Danish ballad. The poem had been translated into English in 1855 by Whitley Stokes, a lawyer and philologist, and friend of the artist.

This watercolour, painted by Burton when he was at the height of his career, has been popular since it was first exhibited at the Old Watercolour Society’s Annual exhibition in London in 1864. The writer George Eliot (who had her portrait painted by Burton in 1865) praised it saying: ‘the subject might have been made the most vulgar thing in the world – the artist has raised it to the highest pitch of refined emotion’ and went on to focus on the romance in the picture: ‘the face of the knight is the face of a man to whom the kiss is a sacrament.’

The Meeting on the Turret Stairs is a very important work in Burton’s oeuvre, he made numerous preparatory studies for it, four of which are in the National Gallery of Ireland’s collection. Burton sold the painting to a dealer, Edward Fox White in 1864 but the contract they signed notes that Burton retained the copyright, presumably aware of how valuable the image would be as a print. The painting changed hands a number of times over the following 30 years but in 1898 it was bought by Miss Margaret McNair Stokes (sister of Whitley Stokes). An article by Jeanette Stokes in the Irish Arts Review, (Vol.26, no.3, 2009) refers to the fact that there are tantalising hints in some of Margaret Stokes’s letters to her family that her interest in Burton was something more than friendship. Margaret Stokes was writing a biography of Burton when she died in 1900, in her will she bequeathed the painting, along with a number of other works by Burton, to the National Gallery of Ireland.

"Hildebrand and Hellelil. Translated from the Danish" from Poems by the Way (1891)

Hellelil sitteth in bower there,

None knows my grief but God alone,

And seweth at the seam so fair,

I never wail my sorrow to any other one.

But there whereas the gold should be

With silk upon the cloth sewed she.

Where she should sew with silken thread

The gold upon the cloth she laid.

So to the Queen the word came in

That Hellelil wild work doth win.

Then did the Queen do furs on her

And went to Hellelil the fair.

"O swiftly sewest thou, Hellelil,

Yet nought but mad is thy sewing still!"

"Well may my sewing be but mad

Such evil hap as I have had.

My father was good king and lord,

Knights fifteen served before his board.

He taught me sewing royally,

Twelve knights had watch and ward of me.

Well served eleven day by day,

To folly the twelfth did me bewray.

And this same was hight Hildebrand,

The King's son of the English Land.

But in bower were we no sooner laid

Than the truth thereof to my father was said.

Then loud he cried o'er garth and hall:

'Stand up, my men, and arm ye all!

'Yea draw on mail and dally not,

Hard neck lord Hildebrand hath got!'

They stood by the door with glaive and spear;

'Hildebrand rise and hasten here!'

Lord Hildebrand stroked my white white cheek:

'O love, forbear my name to speak.

'Yea even if my blood thou see,

Name me not, lest my death thou be.'

Out from the door lord Hildebrand leapt,

And round about his good sword swept.

The first of all that he slew there

Were my seven brethren with golden hair.

Then before him stood the youngest one,

And dear he was in the days agone.

Then I cried out: 'O Hildebrand,

In the name of God now stay thine hand.

'O let my youngest brother live

Tidings hereof to my mother to give!'

No sooner was the word gone forth

Than with eight wounds fell my love to earth.

My brother took me by the golden hair,

And bound me to the saddle there.

There met me then no littlest root,

But it tore off somewhat of my foot.

No littlest brake the wild-wood bore,

But somewhat from my legs it tore.

No deepest dam we came unto

But my brother's horse he swam it through.

But when to the castle gate we came,

There stood my mother in sorrow and shame.

My brother let raise a tower high,

Bestrewn with sharp thorns inwardly.

He took me in my silk shirt bare

And cast me into that tower there.

And wheresoe'er my legs I laid

Torment of the thorns I had.

Wheresoe'er on feet I stood

The prickles sharp drew forth my blood.

My youngest brother me would slay

But my mother would have me sold away.

A great new bell my price did buy

In Mary's Church to hang on high.

But the first stroke that ever it strake

My mother's heart asunder brake."

So soon as her sorrow and woe was said,

None knows my grief but God alone,

In the arm of the Queen she sat there dead,

I never tell my sorrow to any other one.

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

Trevelyan...

“So all day long the noise of battle rolled

Among the mountains by the winter sea;

Until King Arthur’s Table, man by man,

Had fallen in Lyonnesse about their lord,

King Arthur.  Then, because his wound was deep,

And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,

A broken chancel with a broken cross,

That stood on a dark strait of barren land:

On one side lay the Ocean, and on one

Lay a great water, and the moon was full.”

~ Albion's Lost Lands: Lyonesse

Lyonesse
The search for the site of Arthur's final battle where he fell mortally wounded at Camlann has defied identification; candidates have been proposed from the length and breadth of the country. Lord Tennyson seems to be in no doubt and in his Arthurian epic “Idylls of the King" places the final battle between Mordred and the King at Lyonesse.

 Alfred Tennyson. Photograph, carbon print.

The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon - Burnes

La Mort d'Arthur (The Death of King Arthur) by James Archer (1860)

Tennyson has Arthur roving the trackless realms of Lyonnesse long before they crowned him King and refers to the 'sad sea-sounding wastes' and 'lonely coast' of Lyonnesse.

We cannot be certain of Tennyson's inspiration in identifying Lyonesse as the scene of Arthur's final battle against Modred but he was clearly aware of the legend of a land off the coast of Cornwall, connecting Penwith with the Scillies; The Land of Lyonesse, stretching some eighteen miles west of Land's End and eight miles north-east of the Isles of Scilly with a watchtower at the most westerly point to guide seafarers.

“A land of matchless grace was Lyonesse,

Glorious with rolling hills, rejoicing streams,

Hoar monuments upreared when Time was young,

Wide plains of forest, slopes of golden corn,

And stately castles crowning granite peaks”

Following Arthurian tradition Tennyson’s Lyonesse was the realm of Tristan, or Tristram as he became known by English writers, one of the main characters of the greatest legends of Cornwall, the story of Tristan and Iseult, a Cornish hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table. Thomas Malory has the Lady of Lionesse play a significant role in his tales of Arthur and mentions Surluse as part of the kingdom of Lyonesse where Sir Galahad was ruler under Arthur. 2

However, although the tales of Tristan are firmly placed in Cornish tradition there were two other places with variations of the name Lyonesse as Leonais: one in Brittany, and the other seemingly from the French name for Lothian in Scotland. Arthurian romancers may have confusingly called this land off the coast of Cornwall 'Lyonesse,' following the Breton tradition, but the Cornish name for this stretch of land between Land's End and the Scillies was 'Lethowstow'.

On the flats between the small Isles of Scilly are the remains of field walls, now under the sea, evidence of division of the land before it was submerged. Further evidence of man's presence before the inundation is found in an Early Iron Age hut found below the high-water mark on St Martins and pottery from the 3rd and 4th centuries and a Roman bronze brooch from a stone grave found below normal high tides on Old Man. Environmental evidence shows that as late as Roman times the area between the Isles of Scilly was dry land and just one island, a single large, wooded isle which could be walked to at low tide. A Roman writer records a heretic who was banished to Sylina Insula, the island of Scilly, in 387 AD.

The confusion of the location of Lyonesse/ Lethowstow, as the antiquarian, William Camden records, seems to exists because Cornish people during the 16th century referred to the Seven Stones reef off Land's End as the City of Lions, the reputed site of the capital of the legendary kingdom, confused with the Breton town Leonais, probably the region around the coastal town of Saint-Pol-de-Léon, and this form is the probable source of Malory’s Lionnesse. The Seven Stone rocks are held to be the remains of the city where local fishermen have dragged up domestic items in their nets, still calling the Seven Sisters the 'The Town.' 3 Today this reef remains a navigational hazard for shipping and has caused as many as 200 shipwrecks.

In later traditions, Lyonesse is said to have sunk beneath the waves some time after the Tristan stories take place. A persistent legend claims that the Isles of Scilly are all that remain of the fabled land of Lyonesse. However, we find no references in medieval Arthurian legend to the sinking of Lyonesse.

he story goes that a devastating storm swept in to the south-west driving the marauding sea over Lyonesse, drowning the luckless inhabitants and submerging the kingdom beneath the waves until all that remained in view were the higher ground to the west, known to us now as the Isles of Scilly. Legend claims that only one man, Trevilian survived, and he rode a white horse up to high ground at Perranuthnoe before the waves could engulf him. It is said that his ancestry lives on in the Cornish Trevelyan family, whose coat of arms bears a horse issuing out of the sea.

Elizabethan antiquaries collected reports current in the 16th  century stating that Lethowstow contained 'fair-sized towns and 140 churches' and was suddenly engulfed by the sea. They also claimed that one could hear the bells of the drowned city ringing out during rough seas. Today the remains of field boundaries show up at low tide along the sands of the Sampson Flats between the isles of Tresco and Sampson in the Scilly Isles.

Stanley Baron, a journalist from the News Chronicle who was residing in Cornwall during the 1930's, was awoken during the night by the muffled ringing of bells and was told by his hosts that he had heard the bells of Lyonesse.  Edith Oliver, the former mayor of Wilton, claimed she had twice seen towers, domes, spires and battlements beneath the waves whilst standing on the cliffs at Land's End.

What Lies Beneath
Perhaps much of this can be dismissed as fantasy?
Yet, there is evidence of a drowned forest on the Cornish coast with tree stumps sticking out into the sea at Mount's Bay suggesting the sea levels were once much lower. Furthermore, the old Cornish name for St Michaels Mount is 'Carrack Looz en Cooz' which translates as 'The grey rock in the wood'. Archaeological evidence indicates that Mount's Bay was the source of a prehistoric axe material. We have clear evidence of a submerged land in the south-west England within historical times.

Inundation legends are found in many other parts of north-western Europe, not least in Celtic lands.

Gerald of Wales claimed there was a drowned city beneath the waters of  Llangorse Lake in the Brecon Beacons, Mid Wales. On the North coast of Wales near Llandudno was Llys Helig, the palace of Prince Helig ap Glanawg; it is said the ruins can still be seen at very low tides. Off the North-West coast of Wales in Caernafon Bay there is a cluster of rocks, a reef known as Caer Aranrhod, named after the mother of Lleu Llaw Gyffes from the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogion. Charlotte Guest in her notes to the Mabinogion, states, "There is a tradition that an ancient British town, situated near this place, called Caer Arianrhod, was swallowed up by the sea, the ruins of which, it is said, are still visible during neap tides, and in fine weather."

Tree stumps can be seen leading out into the sea at low tide in Cardigan Bay, Wales, the mythical site of Cantre'r Gwaelod (The Bottom Cantred).

But the nearest legend to Lyonesse is the tale of the mythical Breton city of Kêr-Is which was built on the coast of Brittany in a then-dry location off the current coast of the Bay of Douarnenez. Over time the Breton coast had slowly given way to the sea and it now threatened Kêr-Is. To protect the city from inundation, a dike was built with a gate that was opened for ships during low tide. The one key that opened the gate was held by King Gradlon.

But the gate was left open during a storm and at high tide a massive wave crashed down on Kêr-Is and the city was swallowed by the incoming waters. King Gradlon escaped on Morvarc'h, his magical horse.  Which is all remarkably similar to the tale of Lyonesse and Trevilian who escaped on his horse and perhaps the inspiration behind the Cornish story.

In addition to describing Lyonesse as the site of the final battle between Arthur and Mordred, Tennyson's Idylls of the King also claim the lost land is the final resting place of  King Arthur himself. Perhaps this is why the grave of the King cannot be found – it lies beneath the sea.
The Mullamast Stone, from 500-600 in Ireland. There are 4 blade marks on the left side of the stone and 2 deep ones on top, suggesting that the stone was used as part of a “sword in the stone” kingship ritual.

The Mullamast Stone, from 500-600 in Ireland. There are 4 blade marks on the left side of the stone and 2 deep ones on top, suggesting that the stone was used as part of a “sword in the stone” kingship ritual. Mullaghmast, decorated with a triskele, thought to belong to the very end of the prehistoric period, or perhaps to the early Christian period, is now in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
Extra HERE and HERE
Mullaghmast was the royal residence of the Uí Muiredaig kings (later to become the O'Toole family), a sept of the Uí Dúnlainge dynasty of the Laigin.

Mullamast Rath

Fairy Rath by Mark Knight-Raths are always associated with fairies. They are round structures, a ring on the landscape, earthen fortifications dating back to ancient Celtic times. According to archeologists, raths were simply enclosures where family clans once lived in ancient times. But if you ask the average Irishman or Irishwoman today, they will give you a knowing wink and a smile and tell you that these are the homes of ‘the little people’. 

The Laigin are claimed as being descended from Labraid Loingsech. Modern historians suggest, on the basis of Irish traditions and related place names, that the Laigin were a group of invaders from Gaul or Britain, who arrived no later than the 6th century BC, and were later incorporated into the medieval genealogical scheme which made all the ruling groups of early Ireland descend from Míl Espáine. Placenames also suggest they once had a presence in north Munster and in Connacht.

Archaic poems found in medieval genealogical texts distinguish three groups making up the Laigin: the Laigin proper, the Gáilióin, and the Fir Domnann. The latter are suggested to be related to the British Dumnonii.
Amongst others, some of the dynasties that claimed to belong to the Laigin include: Uí Failge, Uí Biarrche, Uí Dúnlainge, Uí Ceinnselaig, Uí Garrchon, and the Uí Máil.
In the legendary tales of the Ulster Cycle, the king of the Connachta, Ailill mac Máta, is said to belong to the Laigin. This is thought by Byrne (2001) to be related to a possible early domination of the province of Connacht by peoples related to the Laigin, the Fir Domnann and the Gamanrad.
The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British tribe who inhabited Dumnonia, the area now known as Devon and Cornwall (and some areas of present-day Dorset and Somerset) in the further parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Iron Age up to the early Saxon period.
The Metrical Dindshenchas, or Lore of Places, a Middle Irish collection of poetry purporting to explain the origins of Irish place names, claims that Mullaghmast is named for Maistiu, wife of Dáire Derg, who was killed by the sorcery of the malicious faery Gris, who was in turned killed by Dáire Derg.

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

The Enchanted Deer

The mighty Finn Mac Cumhaill, the leader of Fianna, spent many days roaming Ireland, hunting with his men and his pack of hounds. They were expert hunters and warriors, and never failed to run down and catch their prey. One day, while hunting, Fianna and their hounds come across a doe in the forest and chased her down, but they could not catch her. She outrun the pack as if possessed special powers. Eventually, the doe leads Finn Mac Cumhaill to magical Hill of Allen, where the hounds catch up with her, but curiously refuse to harm the doe. Finn recognises her as a special creature and returns to his camp, the doe follows him.

When they reach camp, the doe is given shelter. Later that night Finn retires to his room and a beautiful woman, richly dressed, enters and speaks. She tells him that she is the doe, and that her name is Sadb, that she had been cruelly enchanted by an evil druid, but the spell ended when she entered the Fianna camp.

Finn falls in love with Sadb, and they are married. Soon after, she expecting a child, but it is time for Finn to return to his travelling with the Fianna. When he leaves, Sadb turns back into a doe. When the birth is near, Sadb travels across Ireland to find Finn and gives birth to a baby boy, a human, but leaves him under a rowan tree for his father to find. Sadb knows she's unable to raise him as long as she is in deer form. Finn soon discovers baby boy under a tree and instantly knows that it is his son and names him Oisín, which means ‘little deer’ in Irish.

Finn raises Oisín until he is seven years old, at which time Fianna have to go to war and Oisín is sent to live with foster parents. But Oisín longs to travel with Fianna again, and when he becomes a teenager, he begs his father and Fianna to let him go with them. Oisín is given tests and many challenges to determine if he is ready to become a warrior with Fianna. He must run through dense forests without disturbing a hair on his head, pluck a thorn from his foot while sprinting, and run under a branch no taller than his knees. During these challenges, Fianna chases Oisín and buries him up to his waist in sand throwing spears at him. Oisín passes the tests Fianna sets him, and he goes on to become a great warrior and a leader of one of the bands of Fianna. He becomes famous, a great hunter, and known as a kind hearted man who carries out good deeds for his people and answers their needs.

WRITTEN SOURCE HERE  Image Source on Pinterest boards HERE

Artist: Stephen Reid - 

Finn heard far off the first notes of the fairy harp

The Legend of Fionn MacCumhaill

The giant Fionn MacCumhaill was the leader of the ancient Fianna warriors in Ireland. He features in Irish, Scottish and Manx cycles of mythology. He was a soldier, known by his nickname Fionn or Finn (meaning “fair-haired”).  The Irish tales link him with skirmishes and brave deeds in Leinster and Ulster.

Cumhaill married Muirenn, daughter of Tadg and granddaughter of Nuada of the Silver Hand. Cumhaill was the father of Finn. Muirenn, or Muirne as she known in English narratives, was the Danann daughter of Tadg and granddaughter of Nuada of the Silver Hand. She was often called "Muirne of the White Neck". Nuada - King of Erin (Ireland) and leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Nuada had being called the son of the goddess Danu. Usually Nuada had also being called the son of Echtach and the grandson of Etarlaim. Though he had also being named as one of seven sons of Ethliu. This would make him the brother of Dagda, Dian Cécht, Goibhniu, Credne, Luchta and Lug Mac Cein. He was either married to Macha or Nemain, or even both. These two women were both associated with Morrígan (Morrigan).

During the first battle of Moytura (Magh Tuiredh), the Dananns defeated the Firbolgs, killing Mac Erc, king of the Firbolgs. However, Nuada lost his right hand in the fighting. The people had a law that stated the mutilation of his hand prevented Nuada from ruling Ireland as their king. So the Dananns chose Bres as their king. However, Bres' rule was so harsh that the Dananns felt oppressed.

Dian Cécht (Dian Cecht) was the great physician, who had replaced Nuada's hand with magical silver hand. Nuada became known as Nuada Airgedlámh (Nuada of the Silver Hand). With a new hand, the Dananns willingly accepted Nuada as king, and had Bres stepped down from the throne. Bres however reconquered Ireland, aided by his grandfather Balor, the Fomorian leaders.

The Dananns then had to suffer from oppression from the Fomorian overlord, until the arrival of Lugh, son of Cian (Kian). Lugh sided with Nuada, and in the second battle of Moytura (Magh Tuiredh). During the battle, Balor killed Nuada. The Fomorians were defeated when Lugh killed Balor with his sling. Nuada was said to be father of Murna of the White Neck, mother of the hero Finn MacCumhaill. The Welsh equivalent of Nuada was either Nudd Llaw Ereint or Lludd Llaw Ereint, which is "Llud the Silver Hand".

Legend claims Finn lived on the North Antrim coast where he looked across the Irish sea to Staffa, where his adversary, Benandonner lived. The reasons for the quarrel are unknown but Fionn and Benandonner may have been competing over a giantess who lived on Staffa. The rivals shouted belligerent wagers, always challenging the other to a fight, but unable to stage a physical confrontation as no boat was strong enough to carry either giant.

Determined to meet and beat Benandonner, Fionn spent a week building a bridge from Ireland to Staffa. He did not stop working for six days and when he laid the final stones, Fionn fell asleep on the causeway. The thundering footsteps pounding on the causeway awoke Fionn who saw the giant Benandonner approaching. When Fionn saw that Benandonner was almost twice his own size, Fionn raced home to Oonagh, his wife. Oonagh wrapped Fionn up in blankets as if he was a baby and left him to sleep in a large cradle by the fireside. When Oonagh welcomed Benandonner into her home, she explained that Fionn would arrive soon and that Benandonner could wait by the fireside, as long as he did not awake the sleeping infant. When Bendandonner saw the huge size of Fionn’s child, he could only imagine the size of the baby’s father. A fearful Benandonner ran back to Staffa, tearing up the causeway to prevent Fionn from following.

The Tuatha Dé Danann~John Duncan's Riders of the Sidhe (1911)

Adulthood:
Every year for 23 years at Samhain, a fire-breathing man of the Sidhe, Aillen, would lull the men of Tara to sleep with his music before burning the palace to the ground, and the Fianna, led by Goll mac Morna, were powerless to prevent it. Fionn arrived at Tara, armed with his father's crane-skin bag of magical weapons. He kept himself awake by touching the point of his magically red-hot spear to his forehead. The pain kept Fionn awake, allowing him to pursue and kill Aillen with the same spear. After that his heritage was recognised and he was given command of the Fianna: Goll willingly stepped aside, and became a loyal follower of Fionn, although in some stories their alliance is uneasy. Fionn demanded compensation for his father's death from Tadg, threatening war or single combat against him if he refused. Tadg offered him his home, the hill of Allen, as compensation, which Fionn accepted.

Aillen - Called "the burner", he is a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann who resides in Mag Mell, the underworld. Áillen was also a popular personal name in ancient Ireland and was used by several personages. The fertility goddess Áine is also sometimes known by this name.

The Giants Causeway ~ 

The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is also known as Clochán an Aifir or Clochán na bhFomhórach in Irish.

The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places.Around 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleocene Epoch, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau.The Paleocene Epoch brackets two major events in Earth's history. It started with the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous.  This was a time marked by the demise of non-avian dinosaurs, giant marine reptiles and much other fauna and flora. The die-off of the dinosaurs left unfilled ecological niches worldwide. It ended with the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. This was a geologically brief (~0.2 million year) interval characterized by extreme changes in climate and carbon cycling.

According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet.

In overall Irish mythology, Fionn mac Cumhaill is not a giant but a hero with supernatural abilities. In Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) it is noted that, over time, "the pagan gods of Ireland [...] grew smaller and smaller in the popular imagination, until they turned into the fairies; the pagan heroes grew bigger and bigger, until they turned into the giants".

There are no surviving pre-Christian stories about the Giant's Causeway, but it may have originally been associated with the Fomorians (Fomhóraigh); the Irish name Clochán na bhFomhóraigh or Clochán na bhFomhórach means "stepping stones of the Fomhóraigh". The Fomhóraigh are a race of supernatural beings in Irish mythology who were sometimes described as giants and who may have originally been part of a pre-Christian pantheon.

The Fomorians (Old Irish: Fomoire, Modern Irish: Fomhóraigh) are a supernatural race in Irish mythology. They are often portrayed as hostile and monstrous beings who come from the sea or underground. Later, they were portrayed as giants and sea raiders. They are enemies of Ireland's first settlers and opponents of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the other supernatural race in Irish mythology

The Hill of Allen (Cnoc Alúine in Modern Irish, earlier Cnoc Almaine; also Hill of Almu) is a volcanic hill situated in the west of County Kildare, Ireland, beside the village of Allen. According to Irish Mythology it was the seat of the hunter-warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill and the Fianna. The site is currently part-owned by Roadstone Dublin Ltd. and extensive quarrying has noticeably changed the profile of the hill.

The hill is situated at the easternmost point of the Bog of Allen and it is from this hill that the bog gets its name. According to legend, Fionn mac Cumhaill had a fortress on the hill and used the surrounding flatlands as training grounds for his warriors. In 722 the Battle of Allen was fought between the Leinstermen (Laigin), led by Murchad mac Brain Mut (King of Leinster), and the forces of Fergal mac Máele Dúin (High King of Ireland) in close proximity to the hill.

In 1859 Sir Gerard George Aylmer, the 9th Baronet of Donadea began building a circular tower on the top of the hill, which was completed in 1863. The tower was a folly and the names of the workmen are inscribed on the steps.

During the construction of the tower, a large coffin containing human bones was unearthed which were said to be those of Fionn mac Cumhaill. These were re-interred under the site.

Fianna ~ In early Ireland, fianna (singular fian) were small, semi-independent warrior bands who lived apart from society in the forests as mercenaries, bandits and hunters, but could be called upon by kings in times of war. The fianna were kind of like outlaws, the bad boys of Irish mythology, but of course, they were useful to the king when war broke out. They appear in Irish mythology, most notably in the stories of the Fenian Cycle, where they are led by Fionn mac Cumhaill. Reading Gods and Fighting Men by Lady Gregory is a good way to get to know these warriors and their stories.They are based on historical bands of landless young men in early medieval Ireland known as kerns.

Membership to the fianna was subject to rigorous tests that proved supernatural prowess in fighting as well as an exceptional skill with words. In one such test the applicant would stand in a waist-deep hole armed with a shield while nine warriors threw spears at him; if he was wounded, he failed. In another his hair would be braided, and he would be pursued through the forest; he would fail if he was caught, if a branch cracked under his feet, or if the braids in his hair were disturbed. He would have to be able to leap over a branch the height of his forehead, pass under one as low as his knee, and pull a thorn from his foot without slowing down. He also needed to be a skilled poet.
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Fianna 
Salmon of Knowledge - The Salmon of Knowledge (Irish: bradán feasa) is a creature figuring in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. (It is sometimes identified with Fintan mac Bóchra, who was known as "The Wise" and was once transformed into a salmon). In Welsh mythology, the story of how the poet Taliesin received his wisdom follows a similar pattern.
History of the Irish Wolfhound - "If it had emanated from under a gooseberry bush, I should not love and admire it less; and I could not love and admire it more if it traced its pedigree from the Hound that issued from the ark."
Annals of the Four Masters - The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (Irish: Annála Ríoghachta Éireann) or the Annals of the Four Masters (Annála na gCeithre Máistrí) are chronicles of medieval Irish history. The entries span from the Deluge, dated as 2,242 years after creation to AD 1616.

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo

The Trysting Tree ~ Folklore

Many a romantic story features trysting trees, including the tales of Robin Hood and his merry men. In the 1845 version of the story, Maid Marion and Robin Hood are buried together under their 'Trysting Tree.' Scott's Ivanhoe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The White Company make several references to trysting trees.

Tom Cadrin.jpg

And named a trysting day,

And bade his messengers ride forth

East and west and south and north,

To summon his array.

~ A poem by Macaulay.

In Sir Walter Scott's Waverley the large decaying trunk of a Trysting tree lies on Tully-Veolan moor and is still used as a meeting place.

Old Photograph The Covin Trysting Tree Bemersyde Melrose Scotland

Trysting trees are trees of any species which have, through their individual prominence, appearance, or position, been chosen as traditional or popular meeting places for meetings for specific purposes. Names, dates, and symbols are sometimes found carved on the bark, favouring trees with smoother bark, such as beech, hornbeam and sycamore.

 

Many other forms of landscape features have served as trysting places, such as the Lochmaben Stone on the border of Scotland and England. It was a well known, well recognised and easily located 'marker' on the Scottish Marches and where a number of functions were performed prior to the Union of the Crowns, such arranging truces, exchanging prisoners, etc.

Smaller Lochmaben Stone (Clochmabenstane or Old Graitney) (Standing Stone or Menhir).

A 'tryst' is a time and a place for a meeting, especially of lovers. In Old French the word meant an appointed station in hunting. It is likely from an Old Norse source sharing its origin with 'traust', and the Modern English 'trust' (and thus also related to the Old English 'treowe' which survives as the modern 'true'). A trysting day is an arranged day of meeting or assembling, as of soldiers, friends, lovers and the like.

 

There is a trysting tree to the memory of Robin Hood, situated in the small wood just off the left-hand side of Kiveton Lane on the south exit of Todwick in South Yorkshire. The "venerable oak" was stated as "great trysting tree in the Hart-hill Walk" which was, in earlier times, a private road owned and maintained by the Dukes of Leeds, and now forms that part of Kiveton Lane between the Rectory glebe land and Kiveton.

Robin Hood’s Trysting Tree

On the sandy heath of Barnhamcross Common in East Anglie used to be a pine tree about which curious customs have gathered. Called variously the Trysting Pine, Kissing Tree or Wishing Tree, the trunk had twisted and curled itself into a loop not far from the ground. One tradition said that a person had to pull off or knock down a single fir cone, hold it in the right hand, place one's head through the loop and make a wish. Another version told that couples must hold hands through the loop, then kiss and pledge undying love, hoping the tree would bind them to it with its magic.

Robert Burns writes of a trysting thorn tree (see below) at the Mill of Mannoch at Coylton in South Ayrshire. A new hawthorn tree was planted on the site and iron railings placed around it. This tree still survives (2012).

The Millmannoch Trysting Tree

The National Burns Collection holds a cross section of thorn wood from a tree which grew at the Mill of Mannoch, Coylton, Ayrshire which was said to be Robert Burns' "trysting thorn", a romantic meeting place.

One polished surface of the thorn wood reads:

"At length I reached the bonnie glen,

Where early life I sported,

I pass'd the mill and trysting thorn,

Where Nancy aft I courted"

Scotland

The 'Kissing Beech' is located at Kilravock Castle, Inverness-shire. This ancient 'layering' beech took its name from an occasion when a member of the local laird's family was caught in the middle of a kiss with a maid under the tree's canopy. It carries the names of many pairs of lovers and symbols of their devotion inscribed in its venerable expanse of smooth bark.

Source HERE

The 'Great Fraser Yew' may be as much as 700 years old and once served as the rallying point of the Clan Fraser members in times of trouble.

Great Fraser Yew

Kelso, in the Scottish Borders has a 'trysting tree' which is connected with the annual Common Ridings.

The locally famous trysting place of the 'Three Thorns of Carlinwalk', this being an old name for Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway, are recorded in the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland.

Winston Howes, 70, spent a week planting each oak sapling in Wickwar, South Gloucestershire, after his wife of 33 years Janet died. The farmer planted thousands of oak saplings in a six-acre  field – but left a heart-shaped  area in the middle, with the  point facing towards his wife’s childhood home.

Josephine Wall.

U.S.A

The Trysting Tree at Oregon State University, in the USA, is a large Gray Poplar (Populus × canescens) located southeast of Benton Hall, and was a popular gathering spot on campus. According to one story, George Coote, a faculty member in Horticulture, planted the tree between 1880 and 1885. An early alumnus claimed that the Trysting Tree was so named because of its "magical effects on students, especially in springtime". The tree's popularity was such that the Board of Regents felt obliged to place two arc lights on the cupola of Benton Hall (then the administration building) "to keep the tree from being overworked". On September 27, 1987, the original Trysting Tree was cut down because of advanced disease in its trunk and limbs. Prior to its removal, Jack Stang (Department of Horticulture) took several cuttings from the tree and rooted them. One these "off shoots" (Trysting Tree II) was planted in 1982 near the original tree.

A poem, published in 1908, entitled The Trysting Tree, begins:

Beneath the faithful Trysting Tree,

A youth and maiden stand:

The youth, a noble lad is he,

Who claps the fair white hand;

The light that fills those earnest eyes,

Who can understand?

Its final lines are:

Long may'st thou live, thou worthy friend

Thou dear old Trysting Tree

Long may thy branches proudly wave

Majestic'ly and free

To mind us of those happy days

Spent at old O. A. C.*

More lore HERE

Gwynne estate and cottage

What would your choice of trysting tree be?

This would be the trysting tree of my choice, in Calageata. :o) 

It would be like a larger form of Hawthorn. Flowering as a Jacaranda/Blossom/Willow.

Photograph Cherry blossoms at night by Noriko Tabuchi on 500px.

Love and light,

Trace

xoxo