Identifier: mythologyofallra03gray (find matches)
Title: The Mythology of all races ..
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Gray, Louis H. (Louis Herbert), 1875-1955 Moore, George Foot, 1851-1931 MacCulloch, J. A. (John Arnott), 1868-1950
Subjects: Mythology
Publisher: Boston, Marshall Jones Company
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellesley College Library

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ars to know a moreor less historic Arthur; but If there was a mythic Arthur-saga in his time, why does he not allude to It? Did the ancienttraditions to which he had access not know this mythichero, or was he not interested in this aspect of his magnan-imous Arthur? Still more curious is it that neither Gildasnor Bede refers to Arthur. Geoffreys narrative becamepopular and Is the basis of Waces Brut, where the RoundTable appears as made by Arthur to prevent quarrels aboutprecedence, and it Is said that the Britons had many talesabout it. Layamon (c. 1200), on the other hand, states that Itwas made by a cunning workman and seated sixteen hundred. PLATE XXIII Artio The bear-goddess (see p. 124) feeds a bear. Theinscription states that Licinia Sabinilla (dedicatedthis) to the goddess Artio, and the box pedestalhas a slit through which to drop offerings of coins.Found at Berne (Bear-City), which still preservesa trace of the ancient Celtic cult in its famous denof bears. Cf. Plate II, 10.
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THE HEROIC MYTHS 187 while in the Romances it was made by Merlin. Layamonalso declares that three ladies prophesied at Arthurs birthregarding his future greatness — the three Matres or Feesof Celtic belief, found also in other mythologies. Yet beforeGeoffreys time Arthur was known in Brittany, whither Britonshad fled from the Saxons; and there the Normans learned ofthe saga, which they carried to Italy before iioo a. d., so thatAlanus ab Insulis (ob. c. 1200) says that in his time resentmentwould have been aroused in Brittany by the denial of Arthursexpected return. Among the Welsh romantic tales about Arthur the chiefis that of Kulhwch and Olzuen,^ where he and his warriors,some of whom have magic powers, aid Kulhwch in differentquests. The story, which antedates Geoffrey, and proves thatan Arthurian legend existed before his time, is based on thefolk-tale formula of a womans hatred to her step-son. Shebade Kulhwch seek as his wife Olwen, daughter of YspaddadenPenkawr, whose eyelid

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