Monaghan Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore

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a hidden meaning connected to the role of the

original Iseult as a goddess of SOVEREIGNTY: that

Tristan replaced MARK in the favor of the god-

dess, suggesting that the older man was no

longer fit to rule as king.

island Mythological site. The Celts consid-

ered islands to be liminal places, neither quite

here nor quite in the

OTHERWORLD, and thus

useful as gateways for passing between worlds

(see LIMINALITY). Islands share this marginality

with natural sites such as BOGS, STONE CIRCLES,

hills, and SPRINGS, and human-constructed sites

such as HILLFORTS and HEARTHS as well.

There are many mythological islands in

Celtic tradition, including AVALON, the Isle of

Apples, to which king ARTHUR was guided by

the LADY OF THE LAKE; the Isle of Women, an

island or islands in the western ocean ruled by

a beautiful queen and inaccessible except by her

will (see TIR NA MBAN); and HY-BRÂZIL, a magi-

cal island that was visible only once every seven

years. There are also actual islands around

which tales and myths accrue; one of these is

the small Isle of the Living in Ireland’s south-

western province of MUNSTER, near Roscrea,

where no person had ever died or ever would

die; another is Inisbofin off the Connemara

coast, where the mythological white COW

appears every seven years. In Scotland the

Hebrides are called the Isles of the Blessed;

they are described as lands where budding and

harvest occur simultaneously, which though

not factually correct does correspond to

descriptions of FAIRY islands.

Sources: Kennedy, Patrick. Legendary Fictions of the

Irish Celts. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969, pp.

219; Löffler, Christa Maria. Th

e Voyage to the

Otherworld Island in Early Irish Literature.

Salzburg Studies in English Literature. Salzburg,

Institut Für Anglistik und Amerikanistik,

Universität Salzburg, 1983; Ross, Anne, and

Michael Cyprien. A T

raveller’s Guide to Celtic

Britain. Harrisburg, Pa.: Historical T

imes, 1985.

Island of Pigs Irish mythological site. This

name was given to Ireland by the invading MILE-

SIANS, because the magical residents called the

TUATHA DÉ DANANN had cast a cloud of enchant-

ment over the land, causing it to seem like a

small pig-shaped island rather than the generous

green island it truly is.

Isles of the Blessed See FORTUNATE ISLES.

Isolde See ISEULT.

Íte (Ita, Íta, Mo-Íde, Míde) Irish saint. A

Christian woman of whom legends are told that

are studded with pagan motifs, the historical Íte

lived in the sixth century C.E. and founded a con-

vent called Cill (church of) Íte, now Killeedy,

Co. Limerick. Like the KILDARE nun BRIGIT, Íte

seems almost mythological, possibly because her

name was that of a goddess with whom she was

conflated. Íte’s chamber shone as though on fire,

she cured a man by removing his horse’s ears,

and most important, she owned the mythologi-

cal COW of abundance, the GLAS GHAIBHLEANN.

Her miracles involved controlling the weather

and the flight of birds, thus connecting her to

earth goddesses of the MUNSTER region where

she lived.

Source: Ó hÓgain, Dáithí. Myth, Legend and

Romance: An Encyclopedia of the Irish Folk

Tradition. New York: Prentice-Hall Press, 1991,

p. 259.

Íth Irish hero. This minor character makes an

appearance in the BOOK OF INVASIONS, where he is

the first of his tribe, the MILESIANS, to spot the

green island of Ireland on the horizon. He led a

group of his people there but was quickly killed

by the residents, the magical TUATHA DÉ

DANANN. His nephew Míl Despaine avenged his

murder by leading the Milesians in a successful

invasion of Ireland.

264 island

Iubdan (Iubdán) Irish hero. In the early Irish

ADVENTURE tale Eachtra Fhergus Mac Léide, we

meet Iubdan, the tiny boastful king of a people

called the Faylinn, and his tiny queenly wife

BEBO. His poet, EISIRT, tried to contain Iubdan’s

excessive bragging by telling him that nearby

ULSTER was populated by giants—and proved it

by traveling to Ulster and inviting back the poet

Áeda who was in fact a dwarf. Then Eisirt put a

GEIS, an unshakable demand, on Iubdan that he

must taste the porridge of FERGUS mac Léti, the

king of Ulster, before the next dawn. Taking his

wife Bebo along, Iubdan set off to satisfy the

geis—but the couple fell into the porridge and

would have been drowned had they not been

rescued and fished out. The tiny queen caught

the fancy of king Fergus, who kept her as his

mistress for a year and a day, after which Iubdan

bought their freedom with a pair of flying shoes.

The adventure tale of Iubdan has been cited as a

source for the famous Lilliput section of

Jonathan Swift’s satirical commentary on

humanity, Gulliver’s Travels.

Iuchair (Iuchar) Irish divinity. He was one of

the THREE sons of the primal goddess DANU,

who were known as the SONS OF TUIREANN and

who were given a series of impossibly difficult

tasks after killing their father’s enemy CIAN.

Iuchar may have been an ancestral divinity, and

like his brothers BRIAN and IUCHARBA, he is

sometimes said to have been the father of ECNE,

a divinity of wisdom and inspiration. Because the

brothers are so confused in the tales, some

scholars have seen them as a triplication of one

figure; others identify them with the three

important TUATHA DÉ DANANN kings called MAC

CUILL, MAC CÉCHT, and MAC GRÉINE.

Iucharba Irish divinity. This minor god was

one of the SONS OF TUIREANN and had little role

separate from his brothers.

Iupiter See JUPITER.

ivy Symbolic plant. The ivy (genus Parthenocissus),

a vining plant that grows quickly, almost ram-

pantly, symbolized summer to the Celts; the Ivy

King was described as opposing the Holly King in

the endless flux of the seasons. At other times, the

ivy was described as a feminine plant, opposed to

the masculine HOLLY.

Iwein See OWEIN.

Iweriadd Welsh heroine. In some sources,

Iweriadd is given as the name for the mother of

the heroes BRÂN THE BLESSED and MANAWYDAN;

in other texts, the heroes’ mother is PENARD-

DUN, otherwise given as the name of the mother

of their sister BRANWEN.

Iweriadd 265

Jack-in-Irons British folkloric figure. In the

northern English region of Yorkshire, travelers

at night sometimes heard the sound of clanking

chains and saw a strange looming figure called

Jack-in-Irons. Jack said nothing, threatening or

otherwise, but his presence was nonetheless said

to be quite frightening.

Jack-in-the-Green British folkloric figure.

In some rural British communities where spring

festivals descending from the Celtic spring feast

of BELTANE continued until recent times, a

masked young man dressed in a costume of

leaves danced through the streets. He is thought

to be connected with Celtic tree-cults or with

the mysterious figure called the GREEN MAN

found in some architectural contexts in Britain.

Jack-o-Lantern See TINE GHEALÁIN.

Janiform See JANUS.

Januaria Continental Celtic goddess. A figure

of a goddess by this name is known from a single

HEALING shrine in Burgundy, in southwestern

France. She is shown playing a pipe, which has

been interpreted as indicating that music was

used in her healing rituals.

Source: Green, Miranda. “The Celtic/Goddess as

Healer.” In Billington, Sandra, and Miranda

Green, eds. The Concept of the Goddess.

Routledge: London and New York, 1996, pp.

28 ff.

Janus Roman god. Rome had a god, Janus,

who had two faces that looked in different direc-

tions; his name comes down to us in “January,”

the month that looks both forward to the new

year and back to the old. In Celtic lands the

Romans encountered occasional two-faced stat-

ues of unnamed gods and called them after their

familiar god; scholars sometimes call these fig-

ures Janiform, “having the same form as Janus.”

The original Celtic meaning of the figures is

lost, although they have been connected both

with the reverence for the HEAD as symbol of

essence and power and with the assignment of

special power to TWINS.

Jeannie of Biggersdale British spirit. In the

North Riding of Yorkshire, this dreadful spirit

was said to live in Musgrave Woods where, like

other BOGIES or boggarts, she threatened passing

travelers. One farmer who attempted to drive

her out of the region lost his horse when Jeannie

cut it in two; the man was lucky to escape with

his life.

266

Source: Briggs, Katherine M. An Encyclopedia of

Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other

Supernatural Creatures. New York: Pantheon

Books, 1976, p. 239.

Jenny Greenteeth British water spirit. A

boggart or threatening sprite known until the

19th century, Jenny was said to haunt the streams

of Lancashire, seeking to drown passersby. Such

spirits may descend from early WATER divinities

and may encode a faint folk memory of HUMAN

SACRIFICE. Some scholars theorize that Jenny

was only a nursery tale told to quiet unruly

youngsters; the threat of a green-toothed mon-

ster hiding in pools would have kept adventurous

children away from potential danger.

Source: Spence, Lewis. The Minor Traditions of

British Mythology. New York: Benjamin Blom,

Inc., 1972, p. 13.

Joan d’Arc (Jeanne-d’Arc) French heroine.

There have been consistent attempts, both fic-

tional and otherwise, to associate the historical fig-

ure of Joan d’Arc with residual Celtic beliefs in the

French countryside from which she came. Joan

was born ca. 1412 C.E. in the northern region of

Lorraine, in a rural area where ancient beliefs

remained as superstitions despite Christianity.

Early in her life Joan began to hear voices—

two female, one male—that she understood to be

SAINTS revealing her destiny. At the age of about

15, dressed in male garb, she traveled to meet the

Dauphin, the embattled heir to the French

throne, and announced herself as his general.

Aware of the propaganda value of the girl’s oddly

charismatic quest, the Dauphin and his advisers

agreed and were surprised by Joan’s quick and

accurate grasp of military strategy. At the head of

her soldiers, Joan fought the English at Orléans,

driving through their ranks to lift the city’s siege

and earning the title “Maid of Orléans.”

Within a year, she had won the throne for the

Dauphin, crowned as Charles VII with Joan at

his side. Despite her prowess, Joan was captured

by French allies of the British, who sold her to

the enemy. A trial for WITCHCRAFT followed in

which Joan refused to deny her “voices,” the

sources of her inspiration. She was burned at the

stake in 1431, apparently before she had turned

20. Only 25 years later she was granted a posthu-

mous “trial” and declared innocent; in 1920 she

was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

In addition to coming from an historically

Celtic part of France, Joan responded to

Otherworldly powers and embodied an ancient

Celtic image of the woman as warrior that had

been submerged for centuries. Several contem-

porary novelists, notably Anne Chamberlin (The

Merlin of St. Giles Well, The Merlin of the Oak

Wood), draw inspiration from the Celtic motifs in

the historical stor

y of Joan. That this interpreta-

tion has deep historical roots is suggested by the

fact that her inquisitors asked Joan what knowl-

edge she had of the FAIRY faith or those who

practiced it. Joan herself had no doubts that her

inspiration was Christian; she answered, in all

cases, that she was responding to the voices of

saints, not those of fairies.

Source: MacCulloch, J. A. The Religion of the

Ancient Celts. London: Constable, 1911, p. 263.

Joseph of Arimathea Arthurian hero.

Although he figures but slightly in the Christian

Bible, the merchant Joseph of Arimathea has a

significant role in the story of the GRAIL. It was

at his house that, on the night before his death,

the savior Jesus had his Last Supper, in which

the Grail was used as part of the dinner service.

Whether it was a chalice or a platter, the object

was sanctified with the miracle of transubstanti-

ation, when bread and wine are turned into the

body and blood of the Christian god’s son.

Joseph was the only one of Jesus’ disciples

(and possibly, his uncle) with enough money to

bury his master after the crucifixion on Mount

Golgotha, the mountain of the skull. In return

for his services, Pontius Pilate—the Roman

provincial official who had sent Jesus to his

Joseph of Arimathea 267

death—gave him the Grail. (The story is self-

contradictory at this point, because Joseph

should not have needed to be rewarded with his

own cup or platter.) He then set off on a pro-

longed journey around the Mediterranean, bear-

ing the Grail and converting people to the new

religion of Jesus. Finally he came to rest in

Britain, where he had once traveled with Jesus

when the savior was a boy. Joseph had many

occasions to travel to the rich tin mines of

Cornwall, but he passed up that region to settle

in GLASTONBURY. There he thrust his staff into

the ground on Wearyall Hill, and it burst into

bloom despite the wintry weather. Assured by

this miracle that he was to remain, Joseph built

the first Christian church in Britain there.

Jowan Chy an Hor (John of Chyanhor)

Cornish folkloric figure. The Celtic language of

Cornwall in the far southwest of the island of

Britain has little written literature; indeed, the

only known folktale in the language is that cen-

tered on this heroic peasant and his exploits,

which parallel those of similar folkloric heroes

who adventure about the countryside showing

their shrewdness and resiliency.

Jupiter (Iupiter, Jupiter, Jove) This Roman

name was applied to various Celtic gods, includ-

ing the relatively obscure Brixianus, Ladicus,

Latobius, and Poeniunus. Under the INTERPRE-

TATIO ROMANA, Celtic divinities were identified

with similar (or presumed similar) Roman gods.

In the process, the original names of some gods

were preserved as a surname to Jupiter’s; other

gods, however, were obliterated by this Roman

habit, their individual significance disappearing

into the mighty figure of the sky-lord.

Despite Caesar’s contention that the Celtic

Jupiter ruled the heavens, it is impossible to know

whether the Celtic god was connected to the sky,

as was the Roman original. The fact that many

images carry a

WHEEL, often a solar symbol, has

led some to call the Celtic Jupiter a SUN god,

although he is more convincingly described as a

god of abundance and FERTILITY. Sculptures and

reliefs show a mature, bearded man with curly

mustache and beard; usually he is naked, showing

him to be well-muscled and strong. He can be

depicted carrying a thunderbolt, in which case the

Celtic Jupiter is often called TARANIS, after the

name of the thunder god of the continental Celts.

In addition to the images just described, we

also find the Celtic Jupiter depicted as a mounted

horseman fighting a monstrous SERPENT; the

Roman Jupiter was never depicted astride a

HORSE. The god was also honored with the so-

called Jupiter columns, tall four-sided (or eight-

sided) pillars found on the Continent. These

pillars were carved in the form of a tree, and their

attachment to Jupiter suggests he may have been

connected with the Gaulish tree god ESUS.

Sources: Green, Miranda. The Gods of Roman

Britain. Aylesbury: Shire Publications Ltd.,

1983, p. 46; Green, Miranda. Symbol and Image

in Celtic Religious Art. London: Routledge, 1989,

p. 117; MacCulloch, J. A. The Religion of the

Ancient Celts. London: Constable, 1911, p. 29.

268 Jowan Chy an Hor

Kay (Kai, Cai, Cei, Sir Kay) Arthurian hero.

The kindly and sometimes buffoonish Kay

appears in a number of Arthurian stories as

ARTHUR’s companion, foster brother, and

seneschal (steward). He may have originally

been a Welsh god of war, for the Welsh tale of

KULHWCH AND OLWEN describes Kay as being

able to go without sleep for nine days and

stand underwater for the same length of time,

to stretch himself as tall as the tallest tree, and

to warm his comrades in cold weather simply

with the heat of his body—all more than mor-

tal powers. If Kay put a pack on his back, it

became invisible; if he went into battle, no

fewer than a hundred warriors would fall to his

sword.

One of the most significant stories in which

Kay appears is that of the kidnapping of queen

GUINEVERE by the king named MELEAGANT.

With Lancelot, Kay trailed Meleagant to his cas-

tle, where Kay was injured in an attempt to free

the queen. Lancelot sneaked into the room

where the injured Kay was sleeping; Guinevere

was in the same room, and Lancelot went to her

bed, leaving bloodstains on the sheets. The next

day, Kay was accused of taking advantage of the

queen, but Lancelot did battle to reclaim his

friend’s honor.

Some scholars believe that Kay was a god of

Celtic peoples who were traditional enemies of

Arthur’s tribes; thus the connection of the two

heroes in legend is interpreted as a folk memory

of political links forged in reality.

Source: MacCulloch, J. A. The Religion of the Ancient

Celts. London: Constable, 1911, pp. 122 ff.

keening Irish ritual. In Ireland ritual mourn-

ing for the dead was apparently a pre-Christian

rite that survived into historical times despite

clerical opposition. Keening was invented, leg-

end has it, by the goddess BRIGIT after her son

RUADÁN was killed in battle. It was a women’s

ritual, for they were the ones who screamed and

clapped their hands over the body. Usually keen-

ers were women of the village who were skilled

in creating the woeful melodies, but wives and

daughters could also join in the keening (from

Irish caoin).

kelpie Scottish spirit. In Scotland storms at sea

were believed caused by these mischievous, some-

times destructive, beings. Usually they appeared

as blue men, although they could also assume the

fearsome shape of a WATER HORSE. The BLUE

MEN OF THE MINCH made waters constantly tur-

bulent, discouraging all navigation; other kelpies

stirred the waters only when they wished to cause

trouble, so that even a smooth river or pond could

turn treacherous once a traveler stepped into it.

Kelpies were said to be able to leap up onto a

269

horse passing over a ford, driving it mad with fear

and endangering the rider. Boats could fall into

the hands of malevolent kelpies—unless the skip-

per could complete rhyming couplets and force

the kelpie away from the vessel. Kelpies have been

described as a Scottish version of the Breton KOR-

RIGAN, but the latter is more typically a lustful

maiden, while the kelpie is not so highly sexed.

Sources: Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Fairy-Faith in

Celtic Countries. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe

Humanities Press, 1911, p. 28; MacGregor,

Alasdair Alpin. The Peat-Fire Flame: Folk-T

ales

and Traditions of the Highlands & Islands.

Edinburgh: The Moray Press, 1937, p. 116.

Kenneth of the Prophecies (Brahan Seer,

Kenneth MacKenzie, Cainnech, Coinneach

Odhar Fiosaiche) Scottish hero. This folkloric

figure can be described as the Scottish Nos-

tradamus, a man with supernatural powers to pre-

dict the future. An echo of the Celtic BARD as

prophet and diviner, Kenneth MacKenzie is

alleged to be historical, but his story is filled with

mythological motifs. His mother, napping near an

ancient sacred site, dreamed of GHOSTS who

described to her a powerful blue STONE. She

found it and gave it to her son, who saw the future

whenever he held it. Some tales say that Kenneth

foresaw the tragedy of the Highland Clearances,

when people were moved off the land to make

more profit for landlords; others that he foresaw

the destruction of the ancient clan system. An

unfulfilled prophecy says that the entire Isle of

Lewis and Harris will be destroyed in battle.

Kenneth’s magic blue stone is said to lie since his

death beneath the waves of Lough Ussie, rather

like the similar drowned blue power-object of a

parallel Irish figure, BIDDY EARLY.

Source: Folk-Lore and Legends: Scotland. London:

White and Allen, 1889, pp. 5–8.

Kerhanagh (Kiraqhna) Irish monster. In the

Irish western province of CONNACHT, a mythical

beast of this name—which means “fire-spit-

ter”—was said to have been driven by ST.

PATRICK from the sacred mountain called

CROAGH PATRICK. The demon then traveled

across the land, poisoning holy WELLS with its

fetid breath, as Patrick followed in hot pursuit,

nearly losing the trail in Sligo. When the saint

struck his staff on a rock near the hill of

Tullaghan, sweet water poured forth, permitting

Patrick to quench his thirst and reenter his bat-

tle with the monster, from which he emerged

victorious. Such stories of Patrick and his battles

with monsters have been variously interpreted as

indicating Christian extirpation of earlier pagan,

possibly Celtic, cults, or as showing Patrick step-

ping in for an earlier mythological hero who

drove away threatening spirits. The Kerhanagh

may be the same figure as

CORRA and/or CAO-

RANACH, although the legends differ. She is

sometimes called by the English name, the

DEVIL’S MOTHER.

Source: MacNeill, Máire. The Festival of Lughnasa,

Parts I and II. Dublin: Comhairle Bhéaloideas

Éireann, 1982, p. 515.

Keshcorran Irish mythological site. A cave

near this small Irish town in the western province

of CONNACHT was said to be the dwelling-place

of three frightening HAGS. Reputedly, the caves

of Keshcorran were connected by an under-

ground passage to the most mythically important

natural cave in Ireland, OWEYNAGAT (Cave of the

Cats) where the phantom queen MÓRRÍGAN lived.

There is, however, no actual connection between

the caves, despite stories that a woman was led

between them by a calf, to whose tail she was

clinging. To explain the discrepancy between fact

and fable, local people say that the DEVIL stopped

up the passage.

The cave appears in the story Buidhean Chéise

Corainn or the Fight of Keshcorran; the great hero

FIONN MAC CUMHAILL was held captive there by

powerful hags or goddesses, described as mem-

bers of the TUATHA DÉ DANANN, the ancient

270 Kenneth of the Prophecies

divinities of the land. Fionn is associated with

the cave in other tales of the FIANNA that call it

his original home, while other stories claim that

it was the abode of a magical SMITH. The god-

dess ÁINE was also said to live there, disguised as

a hag, unusual behavior for this divinely radiant

figure. Although the stories are confusing and

confused, they offer evidence that Keshcorran

had deep mythological significance.

Sources: Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London:

Thames and Hudson, 1992, p. 238; MacNeill,

Máire. The Festival of Lughnasa, Parts I and II.

Dublin: Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann, 1982,

p. 186.

key Celtic symbol. Several goddesses includ-

ing the horse goddess EPONA and the mother

goddesses called the DEAE MATRES were depicted

holding keys, usually interpreted as indicating a

happy passage from this life to the OTHERWORLD

of death.

Kildare Irish mythological site. Its name

derives from words for “church” and “OAK,” and

this important town and district, in the eastern

PROVINCE of LEINSTER, draws together important

symbols of Celtic and Christian spirituality. It is

especially associated with the figure of BRIGIT, a

Christian saint presumed to have derived from a

Celtic goddess, whose central sanctuary was

there. The most significant day in the region is

February 1, the old Celtic feast of IMBOLC, still

celebrated as Lá Féilé Bhríde, the day of Brigit.

killeen Irish sacred place. Across Ireland, “chil-

dren’s burial grounds” or killeens are found, care-

fully marked on maps and preserved against

destruction. These small bits of field or grove were

used for the burial of fetuses that were miscarried

as well as babies who were born prematurely or

who otherwise died without Christian baptism. As

such, the babes were forbidden burial in Christian

cemeteries, so the bereaved parents put them to

rest in places held sacred before Christianity came

to Ireland. Few of the original divinities to which

these sacred grounds were dedicated are known.

King of Ireland’s Son (Mac Rígh Éireann)

Irish hero. In one of the richest of Ireland’s orally

transmitted tales, the eponymous hero shot a

RAVEN in winter. Seeing its red blood and black

feathers against the stark white snow, the King of

Ireland’s Son was inspired to seek out a woman

with the same coloring (the same motif appears

in the more literary story of DEIRDRE). Thus he

embarked upon a long series of adventures,

including taking care of the estate of a poor man

whose debts would have denied him burial if the

king’s son had not worked to pay them. In doing

so, the king’s son won the gratitude of the dying

man, which was later to be helpful in his quest.

As he searched for his beloved, the king’s son

found helpful servants. One was a GREEN MAN

who desired a kiss from the intended bride;

another, a man whose ears were so acute he could

hear grass growing. Other servants appeared: a

man who kept one finger always to a nostril so

that his strong breath would not blow down

houses; a speedy runner who kept one foot tied

down; and a strong man. All were helpful in the

tests set by the GIANT who held the king’s son’s

beloved in enchanted bondage. When the

princess was duly won, the little Green Man

demanded his fee of the first kiss and further

demanded to be locked alone with the princess

when he collected it. His demands were met, and

raging SERPENTS appeared that would have killed

the king’s son had he been alone with his bride,

but the Green Man killed them. The sturdy

Green Man was revealed as the grateful dead man

whose debts the king’s son had paid, and all lived

happily ever after. The numerous folkloric motifs

that appear in this story make it a favorite among

those who categorize and analyze such tales.

Source: Hyde, Douglas. Beside the Fire: A Collection

of Irish Gaelic Folk Stories. London: David Nutt,

1890, pp. 19 ff.

King of Ireland’s Son 271

Kings, Cycle of the See HISTORICAL CYCLE.

kingship Sacred role. Although our current

image of a king is that of a man with absolute

power, to the Celts kingship was an office of

responsibility and limitation. Upon INAUGURA-

TION, the king entered a sacred marriage with

the goddess of SOVEREIGNTY, possibly embodied

in the queen as representative of the goddess of

the land. So long as the king lived righteously,

the land was fertile, the crops plentiful, the peo-

ple well fed. As one text puts it, in the reign of a

righteous king, “It was not possible to travel

(Ireland’s) forests easily on account of her fruit;

it was not easy to travel her plains on account of

the amount of her honey.” But should the king

fail to satisfy the goddess with his rectitude, the

crops would fail and famine threaten.

Some scholars have interpreted the Celtic

king’s role as sacral (see SACRAL KINGSHIP). Such

scholars contend that the king was less a leader

than a priest, pointing to duties (BUADA) and

taboos (see GEIS) that had little do with politics

or military might, being instead symbolic actions

that showed the people that the king lived with

what was called in Ireland “the prince’s truth,”

fírinne flatho. According to a seventh-century

C.E. text, the king was never to oppress anyone

by force of arms and was never to listen to

unwise supporters.

Righteous behavior included

HOSPITALITY,

for it was part of the king’s role to provide food

and shelter for all who needed or desired it. In

addition, the king was hedged around with

sacred vows that varied from region to region;

the king of TARA, for instance, was never to

remain abed when the sun was up, while the king

of CONNACHT was forbidden to ride a gray-

speckled horse to CRUACHAN while wearing a

gray-speckled robe. In Wales the mythological

king MATH could never let his feet touch the

ground but had to always have them in the lap of

a virgin. Peculiar as such rules may seem, they

parallel the taboos imposed upon royalty in

other lands and seem intended to continually

remind the king that he was not free to live as

other humans are but must be always aware of

the responsibility of his office. Several myths tell

of the resulting chaos when kings broke their

geasa or failed to satisfy the demands of hospital-

ity. Thus the beautiful BRES was forced from

Tara’s throne when he fed a poet meager scraps;

the king CONAIRE died horribly in the hostel of

DA DERGA when he unwittingly broke the sacred

vows of his office.

The rigors of Irish kingship have led some to

hypothesize a Celtic vision of the king as a sacri-

ficial priest whose life might be ended should his

behavior bring on famine and disease. Sources

for the responsibilities of the Celtic kings outside

Ireland are relatively rare. Similarly, it is difficult

to discern what the specific duties of the various

levels of kingship were and how they related to

each other. Irish law describes kings of a tribe (rí

tuaithe), kings of several tribes (rí ruiri), provin-

cial kings (rí coícid), and finally the HIGH KING

(ard rí). In early times the apparently “higher”

offices of provincial and high king seem to figure

more prominently in myth than in history; only

after the Middle Ages does the high king’s role

seem to become political and strategic.

Source: Kelly, Fergus. A Guide to Early Irish Law.

Dublin: School of Celtic Studies, Dublin

Institute for Advanced Studies. Early Irish Law

Series, Vol. III, 1988, pp. 17–21.

klippe Scottish folkloric being. In Forfarshire in

Scotland the klippe was a brown-skinned dwarfish

FAIRY who haunted the moors and the roads.

Knight of the Glen (O’Donohue of the Glen)

Irish folkloric figure. The FAIRY king of the

upper lake of Killarney in the southwestern Irish

province of MUNSTER was the Knight of the

Glen, Daniel O’Donohue. One of several stories

told of this supernatural figure was that he stole

away a local man, John Connors, bewitching a

log to look like the man’s body while he kept the

man himself asleep in the OTHERWORLD. The

272 Kings, Cycle of the

enchanted log was duly waked and buried, with

great mourning and ceremony, while the real

John slept on in FAIRYLAND. When John finally

roused and returned home, he frightened family

and friends out of their wits and could barely

convince them he was not a GHOST.

Source: Curtin, Jeremiah. Hero-Tales of Ireland.

New York: Benjamin Blom, 1894, p. 17.

knitting Folkloric motif. The creation of fabric

by twisting yarn together using two needles was

an important craft in Celtic lands, especially

Ireland and Scotland. It is believed to have been

invented in the eastern Mediterranean, making its

way over trade routes to the islands off Europe,

where it was quickly adopted as a way of creating

strong garments from sheep’s wool. Specific

designs and combinations of patterns evolved—

the Jersey, the Guernsey, the Aran, the Shetland,

the Fair Isle—that are still in use today, although

no longer specific to village and regions. The

common sight of a woman knitting soon gained

archetypal or symbolic importance; the goddess

ÁINE or her substitute, the FAIRY HOUSEKEEPER

known as TOICE BHREAN, was said to sit beneath

the waves of magical LOUGH GUR knitting, and

other folktales similarly show the knitting woman

as having magical or prophetic powers.

Source: Dames, Michael. Mythic Ireland. London:

Thames and Hudson, 1992, pp. 109–110.

Knockainy (Cnoc Áine) Irish mythological

site. Near the enchanted waters of LOUGH GUR

in Co. Limerick is this low mountain topped

with a single stone CAIRN, the home or SÍDHE of

the FAIRY QUEEN named ÁINE. She may have

originally been the regional goddess ANU or

DANU, whose children were the gods called the

TUATHA DÉ DANANN. Some interpret Áine as a

SUN goddess, for a sun-WELL near Knockainy

bears her name. Knockainy was especially

important as a festival site at MIDSUMMER or at

the harvest feast of LUGHNASA on August 1,

when processions of people bearing clars or

straw torches drove their herds up the slopes of

the hill with prayers for Áine’s protection. The

hill was once called Collkilla or “hazel-wood”; as

the HAZEL marked sacred spots where wisdom

could be gained, this ancient name may further

point to the significance of Áine’s hill.

Knockaulin (Cnoc Ailinne, Knockawlin)

Irish mythological site. The kings of the eastern

PROVINCE of LEINSTER once called Knockaulin

(originally known as DÚN Ailinne) their royal

seat, equivalent to TARA in the magical central

province of MIDE and EMAIN MACHA in ULSTER.

Recent excavations have revealed Celtic earth-

works on the hill, supporting local legend about

the hill’s significance. Located near Kilcullen in

Co. Kildare, the low hill is often confused with

the nearby Hill of Allen (see ALMU), seat of the

great hero FIONN MAC CUMHAILL.

knocker (knacker) Cornish folkloric figures.

In Cornwall strange knockings were sometimes

heard on mineshaft walls. Nobody appeared

after the unearthly rapping, for the invisible

knockers were the ghosts of long-dead miners

(possibly Jews, who indeed worked in the

Cornish mines, but more likely FAIRIES), still

hard about their work.

The knockers were not dangerous but help-

ful, their knocking growing louder when miners

came near a rich vein of ore. They did not bother

with mined-out tunnels; they only haunted rich

mines, preferably those where a fortune could be

made extracting tin. Hearing a knocker was a

sign of good luck, but if one said rude things

about them, these spirits could turn vindictive.

Knockers did not like crosses, so miners tradi-

tionally were careful not to wear them or to leave

tools crossing each other when leaving work at

night. They also did not like whistling, although

singing in mines was acceptable.

Occasionally knockers haunted WELLS and

CAVES, as other fairies might, but they tended to

specialize in mines and related most strongly to

knocker 273