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Finder of the Welsh Gods Volume 3 Number 3 Article 11 1976 Finder of the Welsh Gods Dainis Bisenieks Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Bisenieks, Dainis (1976) "Finder of the Welsh Gods," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 3 : No. 3 , Article 11. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol3/iss3/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Discusses the fantasies of Kenneth Morris based on Welsh mythology. Additional Keywords Fantasy literature—Welsh influences; Morris, enneth.K Book of the Three Dragons; Morris, Kenneth. The Fates of the Princes of Dyfed; Morris, Kenneth. The Secret Mountain; Edith Crowe; Annette Harper This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol3/iss3/11 Finder BY of the Dainis Bisenieks W e l sh G o d s A FORGOTTEN FANTASIST in d e e d i s K enneth M o rris , a u th o r o f ation, and so is the godlike or heroic man. This accords per­ two long prose works and a book of stories. L ittle can fectly with M orris's theory and practice. So, Arawn King of be recorded of him except his publications--he appears Annwn is described in these words: "Yet a dignity akin to that on the scene in England in 1909, when he wrote an intro­ of the Immortal Kindred was upon him, and it was to be seen that duction to Mrs. Annie Besant and the Moral Code b y J o s e p h H. kings would obey when he commanded." But Auden goes on to say Fussell, a polemical pamphlet sponsored by Katherine Tingley. that "The Incarnation...puts an end to all claims of the imagina­ A few years later he studied at the Theosophical community at tion to be the faculty which decides what is truly sacred and Point Loma, California, founded by Mrs. Tingley, where in 1914 what is profane." (The D yer's Hand: "C hristianity and Art") h is book The Fates of the Princes o f Dyfed was issued under the God's work on Earth is no longer done by men whose heroic quali­ imprint of the Aryan Theosophical Press. (Its emblem, in those ties are manifest to the imagination. A Christian w ill in any dear dead innocent days, included both a Shield of David and a event disbelieve M orris's claims to have learned from the theo- Swastika.) It is based on the First Branch of the Mabinogi and sophists the "inward laws...at the heart of all true religion; the name that appears on it is Cenydd Morus--a Welsh form of which proclaim... that that which is now human should be made more his name. The stories in The Secret Mountain (London, 1926) than human, divine." He will not heed the "trumpet call to the are partly on Welsh themes, and his last published book, B ook Divine in each of us ...the Dragon War shout of the ages." But the o f the Three Dragons (New York, 1930), continues a branch of imagination remains a natural human faculty; Tolkien in both the other long tale. This last had a wider public as a Junior p a r t s o f Tree and Leaf reconciled the grasshopper and the ant— Literary Guild selection and got some good reviews, but that is so one could speak of the heartening power of art (including the last we hear of Mr, Morris. Lin Carter reprinted a part of heroic fantasy) which enables man to bear responsibility with the last book, Ursula Le Guin spoke well of it, I checked some grace. One may listen to that trumpet call but not march off standard reference works, and so it was my fate to recognize to i t . the "Morus" book on a bookstore shelf. It is the work of a believer who is fortunately a good storyteller. One may be shy of theosophy and its vocabulary— THE COUNCIL OF THE IMMORTALS s e t s th e e v e n ts o f t h i s t a l e I don't like making utterances about the soul of man--but I in motion; by their doing Pwyll Prince of Dyfed pursues agree as well as an unbeliever may with his ideas on the uses ___a stag to the shore of a lake where he meets Arawn, King of myth and story, set forth in an interesting preface. Morris of Annwn in the Underworld. Their compact to change places un­ claims the right to rework his sources, as did generations of til Pwyll shall kill Hafgan is as told in the First Branch, and bards before the tales were written down: there is nothing so is the coming of Rhianon the daughter of Hefeydd. But the sacrosanct about these versions. Scholars agree that their magical hill of Gorsedd Arberth, which in the original is simply characters were once gods, and Morris has restored godhead to there, is here manifested to mortal eyes only after Pwyll's them, so that the tales may work on us as he believes they return. The marvels in M orris's tale are all charged with sig­ should. "The deepest truths of religion and philosophy had nificance. The Hill of the Immortals is for the testing of men. their first recording for the instruction of the peoples, not in Rhianon, who appears to Pwyll after he takes his seat on the the form of treatise, essay or disquisition, but as epics, sagas, h ill, promises him an immortal destiny if he will but follow her and stories." And these "did not seek to tell you things ABOUT counsel. The third time he might disobey, loss and sorrow and the soul...but to present in great pictures that soul itself...." long wanderings would be for him: and so it proves. Morris believed the true function of Romance to be "to pro­ The first time he fails is at the wedding feast at Hefeydd's claim indestructible truth in terms of the imagination," and this court, when he promises to a noble stranger to grant any request; truth was of the upward journey of the soul, "the revelation of in response Gwawl the Son of Clud claims Rhianon from him. The the divine to the personal principle in man." The Gods propose only instrument of breaking this fate is the Basket of Gwaeddfyd to test Pwyll Prince of Dyfed, seeking to make him one of them. Newynog; he has a year and a day to obtain it. In the original, The testing of Pwyll and of his son Pryderi, known also as Gwri the basket, with advice on its use, was simply given by Rhianon; Gwallt Euryn, is the matter of this tale. here it becomes the object of a quest, with the well known pat­ As for the Gods, Morris relies on his intuition to extract tern of two failures and a success. Time is running short when their names and natures from the remnants of Welsh lore. He Pwyll and his men meet an old man by his desolate cottage and finds nothing numinous in names like Teutates and Tarannis, are asked to perform some services. Firewood first: the head of known from inscriptions in Roman Gaul. But "Plenydd, Alawn and Pwyll's Hundred offers to fetch some in the old man's basket from Gwron--the Light-bringer, the Lord of Harmonies, the Heartener the Forest of Celyddon. But no matter how much is put in, the of Heroes—they form so perfect a symbol of powers that lie la­ basket is not full; taking the wrong advice, he stamps down the tent in ourselves and in the universe, that if they were inven­ contents and is swallowed up. A second goes to gather rushes and ted by Iolo Morganwg or [others], one would say the invention meets the same fate; finally Pwyll himself goes for the golden was rather a discovery: that they were Gods and Welsh Gods be­ apples of the Orchard of Celyddon and returns successfully. Re­ fore those men were born ...No m atter whether such names are fusing other gifts, he is given the basket and a full knowledge ancient, medieval, or comparatively modern; one would have been of its "peculiarities"—a part of M orris's idiom in this book. put to it to invent them oneself if one had not found them ready The language ought to be described: it can be seen as Cel­ to hand." A familiar idea: if God did not exist, one would tic in inspiration.
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