Gwyn ap Nudd and St Collen with Dr Gwilym Morus-Baird

[@bobbiebrotherton9673]

Thank you Gwilym, you've cleared up my confusion. Don't know what this says about me but I'm on the side of Gwyn ap nudd.

[@bobbiebrotherton9673]

Loved this, Always found him fascinating. Brought me back to when I started my discovery of Welsh mythology. Many thanks

[@CelticSource]

Croeso

[@PBH839]

Thank you for the continued videos about Gwyn ap Nudd! You are the best unbiased source of information on him that I have been able to find.

[@CelticSource]

Thanks, glad you find them useful.

[@tiegemccian2409]

Great lecture again Dr Morus-Baird. I was really looking forward to you tackling this story. Very interesting about the dual colors, and about the lake from which mythological figures would periodically surface. Do you ever plan on doing a lecture on that subject? It reminds me of similar 19th c folklore in Ireland, and can be traced back to ideas found in the Life of Saint Brendan and the life of Saint Abban. I’d have to dig it up again, but I think I remember an ancient Roman chronicler mentioning that the Gauls believed deities would come from over the sea at set times to the people. Anyway, back to the story. What a piercing insight noting the folkloric “three” in the Buchedd. In my small essays I noticed that Collin and Gwyn ap Nudd bears some striking symmetry with the 10 c prose tale Finn and the Phantoms. Both story feature characters with cognate names, Finn/Gwyn, both have the protagonist find marvelous otherworldly abodes atop wilderness summits, both are summoned inside under threatening circumstances, both have illusory food which the hero refuses to eat, stating what it really is as opposed to what it looks like, and after a confrontation both abodes disappear, leaving the hero in the wilderness. I can find the ‘illusory food’ as far back as the life of Collumcille, but in a narrative totally unlike Collin or Finn. So it’s a very old idea, but the secular tales are unlikely to have been inspired by the Saint’s vita. Awesome lecture as always. A lot of fun, I wish I had time to take part in your classes again, it would be phenomenal!

[@CelticSource]

That sounds like a really interesting comparison, Tiege. I'll chase that up when I get a chance. Thanks for the reference. There is a lot to be said about water and deity / spirits / supernature. It will go into the ideas bucket for sure (pardon the pun).

[@georginaceri]

Also, Crimson Red and Indigo Blue used to be the most expensive colours, and that goes with the extravagance of the feast.

[@nicokelly6453]

Oh, a good one! I remember reading this story a long while ago (probably an adaption of it), and it’s cool to learn more about it. Mae hyn yn ddiddorol iawn, diolch!

[@CelticSource]

Croes, Nico.

[@tomzadvydas1758]

There is a great novelization of this tale called the Green Lady and the King of Shadows

[@YPibydd]

Do you have the source of the prayer to Gwyn ap Nudd please? Or where it can be obtained? Diolch

[@CelticSource]

It's frustrating, as I have yet to find a direct reference for the original. That said, there is a reliable reference in Brynley F. Roberts' entry on ‘Gwynn ap Nudd’, Medieval Folklore ed. Carl Lindahl et al (Oxford 2002), 190. But that seems to be the main reference for all other instances. I trust Roberts and the editors of the book, but it would be nice for the rest of us to know where the actual text is. Let me know if you dig up anything better!

[@YPibydd]

@@CelticSource ok diolch Gwilym. If I get a source Ill let you know.

[@georginaceri]

Red and blue are mi-parti fashionable hoses worn by men in Medieval and EArly Renaissance period. You can search for images as mi-parti or particoloured or period hose - Red and blue is not uncommon. Also, an excerpt from a webpage: "Red and blue were a popular colour combination in fourteenth century clothing and interior decor; and red and blue feature heavily in the strong, bright colours used throughout the entire Waterford Charter Roll". Ireland's traditional colour is Blue, not green. And Wales has Red. And they are both Celts. Is there any division or union between the 2 implied? Gwyn ap Nydd as Devil is the symbol of split, of divisiveness. It is also that bridge that you mention, the transitional era. The transition is not welcome by vested powers. But the emerging Christians, even if they come as a uniting agent to the people, they are actually causing a split with their infiltration to the local traditions. So, this story does not seem so favourable of St Collen and the Christians. It marks their contradictory purposes and effects. gr.pinterest.com/pin/437341813786655085/

[@CelticSource]

"Ireland's traditional colour is Blue, not green. And Wales has Red. And they are both Celts. Is there any division or union between the 2 implied?" I don't think so, Georgina. It's not clear those colours are related in any way, perhaps in attempts to distinguish between different aristocracies but I'm guessing no more than that. Yes red and blue were popular colour, but if you look at the use of these colours in Christian iconography for example they are often intensely symbolic. It's the fact that they are ascribed an explicit symbolic meaning that's notable in the story.

[@AlunBattrick]

Hei Gwil. Dw i'n dwli ar y fideo na gwnes di i'r mentrau Iaith ar Chwedl Gwyn ap Nudd. Mae'n wych! Diolch am lenwi saith munud o wers i fi.

[@CelticSource]

Alun! Blincin hec, ers tro byd. Croeso mawr, da clywed fod o wedi bod yn ddefnyddiol.

[@KitoTodd]

I agree with you completely! Christianity did borrow a lot from the ancient pagan stories especially the ancient Egyptian and Celtic stories🌞🌕🍀

[@MsDormy]

Gwyn ap Nudd’s ‘heaven’ is so much more romantic than our Christian ideas.... give me castles and horses any day over standing about in white robes, doing nothing much!!

[@cliveadams7629]

The moral of the story- never be nice to a Christian monk.