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Home , Celtic mythology, Irish calendar, Macha, Melia (mythology), Otherworld, White Rabbit

of the : Identifying ’s through Mythology

The poet-mathematician Charles Dodgson composed an ex tempore romance, in moments of inspiration on an excursion into nature, writing it all down for the very muse enlivening his creative literary endeavor of journeying through sublime and strange other-worlds. An analytical jumping-down into his rabbit holes and stepping through the looking-glasses of Lewis Carroll’s wonder-filled lands reveals the events of Alice’s odysseys into under realms as magical and mythological adventures; extensions of tales, lore, and traditions of early Celtic oral narratives. By putting Alice’s Adventures in as well as Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There into contexts of Celtic mythic structure we see more than simple parallels between heroic female characters of Irish antiquity and Carroll’s Wonderland heroine; we see the same Indo-European theory of tripartite social function governing worlds of ancient mythology, showing this young girl of a dreamy, Victorian fantasy as an ancient Celtic sovereignty goddess. The foremost theorist of mythological structure, George Dumezil, brought forth a new for the comparative study of mythology through thematic, linguistic, and narrative similarities and archetypal literary devices allowing easy classifications of universal labyrinthine plot problems facing characters. Alice’s stories can be read as a ‘Victorian ’ depicting cultural and societal constructs fitting into the same tri-partite structure Dumezil perceived in Indo-European mythoi. Back then Dumezil’s new theories were liberally applied to extra- linguistic phenomena, specifically in the explanation of mythology. Today, closer analysis of the Alice narratives show Celtic myth lead the way for Carroll’s protagonist throughout her otherworldly Wonderland. The leading analytical theories of Dodgson’s time lead to Dumezil revolutionizing and defining the field of , “Dumezil perceived the first function: kingship, encompassing a sacred knowledge, presiding over a second function martial force or class of warrior aristocracy, above the third functionality of fertility, beauty, and abundance among commoners and artists, poets, and free men. Curiously, kings are not battle leaders often having a young champion as their rival or heir” (Littleton). Stemming from the of philology in the 19th century, Dumezilian theories of Indo-European tripartite functionality have been heavily applied to Celtic myth, and specifically the “ Cycle of , and to

their Welsh counterparts The Four Branches of the Mabinogi” (Littelton); these stories contain crucial plot points, and devices imbedded in Carroll’s Wonderland and the land of the Looking- Glass. Through locating character types and narrative parallels we can find accounts of Alice in Wonderland as far back as the . Preceding Carroll’s publications, Victorian children celebrated the marvelous and uncanny in the popular printings of ‘sensation fiction’ with Europeans and the world enthusiastically reading “Grimm Brothers’ tales (1820s), nineteenth century adaptations of The Arabian Nights and stories of Hans Christian Andersen (1846), Ruskin’s The King of the Golden River (1851), Thackeray’s The Rose and the Ring (1855), Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies (1863), George MacDonald’s Phantastes (1858) and The Princess and the Goblin (1870), all demonstrating rich experimentations in the field of fiction and expert handling of surreal effects, escapist nonsense, and psychological or social allegory” (Moran). Lady Charlotte Guest successfully translated and published the first English rendition of the Four Branches of The Mabinogi in 1838 and 1849 which helped revive Welsh and Celtic legends that had been incorporating those themes since before the written word. Despite materials printed in his time, it is the materials Dodgson collected and kept in his personal library where Carolinians have assembled an archive linking the author to his distant Irish heritage, one which might highlight Alice’s deeper connections to ancient Irish folktales: “Fairy Legends and Traditions of Southern (1834), Essays on Irish Bull , Wit, and Eloquence (1802), Oxford Essays on The Land System of Ireland and Comparative Mythology (1855-58), Irish History and Character (1872), of Irish Life (1868), and Ireland: Ur of the Chaldees (1873)” (Lovett). Balancing between contemporary tastes in children’s literature and classical texts of Irish myth Dodgson knew sequences and episodic structure of myth from his familiarity with Celtic narratives, and Alice follows Irish traditions the moment she follows the White Rabbit. “She had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under a hedge / In another moment down went Alice after it” (Carroll).

For Celtic mythologists, this inciting incident recalls the graphic imagery of the oldest Irish manuscripts on multiple levels; “Adventures in the Otherworld are common enough in romance, but in medieval Celtic literature they play a large role” (Ford). The Mabinogian Tales such as Cullwch and , , Prince of Dyfed, and Son of Llyr, reach back into Celtic antiquity and hold Oxford to be the central point in an evenly measured British isle, but these myths also center their formations around the chase or the hunt of a white or sometimes red otherworldly animal leading their pursuers into the alternate planes typically by crossing a liminal boundary such as a field, a stream, or hedge, as Alice is all too eager to emulate. Carroll’s utilization of the rabbit hole could define early Celtic mythological tales with burial mounds as their settings due to Irish placements of the Side, or Otherworld, underground; “Other than the hunt, no other territorial markers signal the entry into the Otherworld, nor is the return demarcated with any precise indicators for the audience, though one clear marker is color, for red and white are the colors of animals and inhabitants of the Otherworld in Celtic tradition” (Ford). Welsh translations of Mabinogi tales inherited from Ireland show these rich mythological themes in ancient of, “The White Book of Rydderch A.D. 1300-1325 and the Red Book of Hergest, 1375-1425” (Ford). Wonderland’s focus on expressing red and white is colored Irish green when viewing the Queen of Hearts’ castle, her red and white rose garden, as well as Through the Looking Glass’ pronounced presence of Red and White Royalty, Red and White knights, and a white unicorn and red lion embroiled in battle over a crown, perhaps signifying the prominent ‘Irish Question’ heating up relations between the Irish and the British in Dodgson’s Victorian times. The Britain and Ireland of mythological times comprises two worlds the ‘real’ and the other, “A stylized, idealized version of our own real one, where inhabitants are distinguished primarily by powers of transformation, many of them appearing as birds, some move invisibly, and they extract no moral authority, often they seem just like ordinary humans, a place with endless food and drink, heavenly music, absence of pain and sorrow, and timelessness with feasting and drinking, and all types of entertainments and poets” (Ford). Carroll’s characters from the Caucus Race, the , Mad Tea-Parties all come to mind as Alice’s size issues, many recitations of poetics, and ultimate overthrow of monarchies, in both Wonderland and Looking Glass worlds, recall for audiences that, “A number of motifs known to students of Celtic are clustered here: the unknown maiden, helper animals, and the accomplishing of

impossible tasks, all belong to ancient Irish myth” (Ford). Carroll’s Wonderland and the are difficult to tell apart. The interactions of Alice and characters of Irish myth while in the alternate realms are heavily impacted by time which all but stands still in the Otherworld and Wonderland, with coming and going relying on crucial Celtic celebrations known as Beltene and Samuin. Entering Wonderland during Beltene, or the first days in May, Alice discovers, “The beginning of summer was a period of Otherworldly visitation, suggesting it was a time when the real and the fantastic merged” (Gantz). The first days of November, Samuin, representing the commencement of winter and the first days of the new year, are celebrated with feast days of great change, when doors between the real and Otherworld stand wide open; “Samuin is a partial return to primordial chaos, an appropriate setting for myths symbolizing the dissolution of an established order as a prelude to its recreation of a new period of time, the most important day in re-creation and Irish rebirth” (Gantz). The Tain Bo Culinge, Cathe Maige Tuired, The Wooing of Etain, The Dream of Oengus, Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel, The Wasting Sickness of Cu Chulaind, and The Intoxication of the , and the tales of The Mabinogi all commencing on these annual days of deep spiritual significance; “The Irish Otherworld was not simply anticipated joy in the , it was primarily an alternative to , a world that the hero might enter upon that is beautiful but not quite human, there is no winter, the hero never stays, and tension is always present” (Gantz). Alice’s aptitude for moving freely in and out of worlds on sacred days of the reflects the heroes’ same abilities in Celtic mythological narratives. The Victorian Alice, in a world of reversals, replaces central male archetypes such as Cu Chulaind, Pwyll, Lug, and later Arthur, who journey to the otherworld in their myths. Reversing the sex to suit his subject, Alice as the hero takes on the same attributes of traditional central characters believed to be euhemerized versions of the gods such as , the “path finder.” Choosing to obstruct accounts of Alice’s human parents in the narratives of her stories, Carroll is establishing the main character’s divinity, “It is commonplace concerning Celtic heroes that there is some confusion over parentage. This is usually due to protagonist’s deific origins” (Ford 14). Alice acting as the hero of her own epic myth fulfills key aspect of the second class warrior function figure: her affiliations with ravens, magical deformation, interactions with crossing bodies of water, align with second function Celtic heroes, “The protagonist’s liminal ability to

engage with the Side due to divinely inspired heritages enables their myths to transpire, they are raised apart; losing their identity and not being recognized along their journey requires moments of validating their identity in order to gain seats of knowledge and privilege; the heroes both stand in for their king in times of Cattle raids and confrontations between rivaling nations, singlehandedly bringing resolve; Both figures ensure fertility through the preservation of sacred knowledge” (Melia). Leaping off the pages these themes are given new life through Alice’s interactions in both Wonderland and the Looking-Glass worlds: raised apart, resolving battles between the Unicorn and Lion on behalf of the White King, forgetting her name, the need to control her temper, and her use of size shifting are combining characteristics linking legendary second function Celtic warrior narrative to Carroll’s. Like Celtic warriors and heroes of mythological divine status, poetry sets them apart from lower third classes in societies of both the real and otherworld. A hero like Alice, harnessing powers of explicitly magical overtones obtained through verse, lyric, and clever language, employs Celtic traditions of poetics, “The practice of poetry among was understood to have and divinatory powers” (Ford). Alice’s reoccurring recitations of rhyme cast her in a role of a repository of otherworldly knowledge, the ultimate projection of the Celtic archetypal poet. The Tale of , an Irish myth chronicling the exploits of one “not created from a mother and father but from poetic elements and who has been in existence since the dawn of creation, with the powers to shift shapes” (Ford) is a template for Alice’s mastery of poetry and power the art of words grants her. Ascribing multiple traits of divinity through Irish heroic narrative, Alice becomes cast in the role of a female first function figure of sovereignty once she obtains the crown in The Looking-Glass world. Alice is the warrior usurping protocols to don the role of Queen Alice, the central plot of in Cathe Maige Tuired or Mebd in The Tain. Having ascended the tri- functional hierarchy from the inherently feminine third function, a female figure operated in the role of a second class warrior on a quest to obtain sovereign power of a land not her own, which in Celtic terms highlight her goddess status. Alice, a symbol of purity and virginity as markers of her fertility culminates in the visage of goddess during chapter ten of ‘Through the Looking-Glass’ where Alice becomes a euhemerized version of the Celtic horse-goddess and fertility “.” This sovereign female figure is often depicted as a woman of the Side, accompanying a white horse which is

always at an amble and whose various alternative names are Regina, “Queen”, or , ‘great queen goddess,’ a maiden with a pale white horse traveling along the road appearing in Pwyl, Prince of Dyfed, and Manawydan son of Llyr, and Cathe Magige Tuired as Epona, known for holding a bag of endless bounty. Carroll grants his character the same goddess designation through her actions, “Alice held the bag open very carefully… which was already loaded with bunches of carrots, and fire irons, and many other things / The horse quietly moving about, with reigns hanging loose on his neck, cropping the grass at her feet” (Carroll). Alice, as the sovereignty figure, is reinforced the deeper into Celtic mythology one goes. Harnessing the power of creation and destruction, Alice, sometimes made of flowers, changing shape and size, always beautiful or tied to the preservation of the land while also enabling mishaps, poetics, destruction and chaos, and the overthrow of pre-established orders matches representations of the female sovereignty figures the Irish Epona, and the Morrigan, in Cath Maige Turied; Olwen, in Cullhwch and Olwen; Blodeudd, in Math son of Mathonwy; Etain, in The Wooing of Etain; and , in The Twins of Macha, “Who fought her way to the throne, rising through the classes from agricultural beginnings, and is magically presented twins along the way” (Littleton). Carroll situates this account of Irish lore in Alice’s interactions with twin warriors Tweedledee and Tweedledum, “She arranged a bolster around the neck of Tweedledee, “to keep his head from being cut off”, “It’s one of the most serious things that can happen to one in battle- to get one’s head cut off” (Carroll). The image of the Celt torque, the principle battle accessory adorning Irish warriors, placed around the neck to prevent decapitation in battle is reminiscent of Cathe Maige Tuired’s Morigan helping Lug prepare for battle, and Aranrhod giving armor to in Math son of Mathonwy, a sovereign aiding a member of the warrior class. The sage words concerning decapitation in Looking-Glass world alludes to a parodying of wisdom gained by the Celtic heroes, Cu Chulaind, in The Tain, who beheads a foe, as beheading is a common theme in Celtic mythical recounts of the many historical invasions of Ireland. Analyzing Alice according to comparative mythology captures fundamental images identifying class tri-functionalism of monarchical societies. Traditions of myth present larger worlds of meaning and for Carroll Wonderland and Looking-Glass’s peasant, warrior, and ruling classes, “are manifestations of a unifying and deeply rooted Indo-European that make up the world of meaning in Irish mythological cycles in terms of spiritual and temporal

boundaries” (Littleton). Alice directly influences each functioning class of those wondrous and mirrored . Traced from her dominant third function femininity, her roles in the second function warrior class paired with directly effecting battle results within the narrative, and her acquisition of the first function King/Queenship establishing a character type of sovereign demarcating margins of otherworldly myth. Carroll’s texts ripen with comparisons to Celtic texts and the overall Indo-European format of tri-functionalism the deeper one looks, but for the Welsh and the Irish, all of Alice’s nonsense predates the written word, which makes her a descendant of the oldest sovereignty in history.

Works Cited

Carroll, Lewis. Gardner, Martin. Ed. The Definitive Edition: Alice’s & Through The Looking Glass. W.W. Norton & CO. New York. 2000. Print.

Ford, Patrick K. The Mabinogi and Other Welsh Tales. University of California Press. Berkeley, Ca. 1977. Print.

Gantz, Jeffery. Early Irish Myths and Sagas. Penguin Books. London, England. 1981. Print.

Knapp, Bettina L. Women, Myth, and the Feminine Principle. State University of New York Press. New York. 1998. Print.

Littleton, Scott. The New Comparative Mythology: Anthropological Assesment of the Theories of George Dumezil. University of California Press. Berkeley, Ca. 1996. Print.

Lovett, Charlie. Lewis Carroll Among His Books: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Private Library of Charles L. Dodgson. McFarland & Co. Jefferson, NC. 2005. Print.

Melia, Daniel. Parallel Versions of The Boyhood Deeds of Cu Chulainn. Scottish Academic Press. Edinburgh. Print. 1975.

Moran, Maureen. Victorian Literature and Culture. London, England. Continuum. 2006. Print.

Reichertz, Ronald. The Making of the Alice Books: Lewis Carroll’s Use of Earlier Children’s Literature. London, England. McGill Queen’s University Press. 1997. Print.