Celtic Otherworld
Filed by Aine MacDermot
THE GOING OF LANVAL TO AVALON
The fairy romances which were recorded during the mediaeval period in continental Europe report a surprisingly large number of heroes who, like Cuchulainn and Ossian, fell under the power of fairy women or fées, and followed one of them to the Apple-Land or Avalon. Besides (p. 348) Arthur, they include Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawayne, Ogier, Guingemor and Lanval (see pp. 325-6). The story of Lanval is told by Marie de France in one of her Lais, and is so famous a one that we shall briefly outline it:–
Lanval was a mediaeval knight who lived during the time of King Arthur in Brittany. He was young and very beautiful, so that one of the fairy damsels fell in love with him; and in the true Irish fashion–himself and his fairy sweetheart mounted on the same fairy horse–the two went riding off to Fairyland:–
On the horse behind her
With full rush Lanval jumped.
With her he goes away into Avalon,
According to what the Briton tells us,
Into an isle, which is very beautiful. 1
Brian Lee wrote:
I know this story, it differs from this, only in one way. It is a Welsh legend and not Irish. Even tho the Irish came on the scene later. Makes sence, seeing that the Welsh are the Celts, and the Irish are Gaelic/Manx. A lot of Wales`s scripts where either destroyed by the English or where hidden by Welsh royalty that lived in Ireland. Ireland & Scotland have also stolen a lot of the Welsh history to use as their own. Rhiannon was a Welsh princess who was abused by her husband (Irish noble), she managed to get word back to her father, hence war. And so the story begins.
Posted on 23-Jan-08 at 3:47 pm | Permalink
Blackbird wrote:
Umm…the Irish are Celts as well. Irish speak q-Celtic and Welsh speak a LATER form of p-Celtic…since it is based on linguistics (and the early mainland Celts spoke q-Celtic)…the Irish are most definitely Celts.
Posted on 03-Mar-08 at 9:39 am | Permalink