on: they are Gwydion son of Dôn, Gilvaethwy son of Dôn, Amaethon son of Dôn, Govynion or, as he is more usually called, Govannon son of Dôn, the smith, whose name is etymologically equivalent to Goibniu, genitive Goibnenn, that of the smith of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and Aranrod or Arianrhod, daughter of Dôn.
Their father is not usually mentioned, but Arianrhod is called daughter of Beli in the Welsh Triads[1] (i. 40 = ii. 5), whence it may be inferred that Beli was reckoned Dôn's husband. He is usually called Beli the Great, son of Mynogan,[2] and his name figures as that of the king of the Brythons in the golden age of their mythic history. It is also doubtless to be identified with that of Bile, father of Mile[3] and of most of the human inhabitants of Ireland as distinguished from gods and demons. But Bile is fabled to have been king of Spain, so that his descendants are described invading Ireland from Spain: what could that mean? Now visits by the heroes of the Brythons to Hades are, as we shall see in a later lecture, sometimes represented as made to Ireland, and the heroes of Ireland setting out for a similar destination are conversely said to come to Britain. But in some instances Spain appears to have been substituted for Hades. Thus a mythic dog forming a terrible Cerberus killed by the sun-hero Cúchulainn is
- ↑ The reference is to the Triads published in three versions in the Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales (London, 1801), Vol. ij. pp. 1—22. Version ij. is from the Red Book of Hergest, and has been published by me in the Cymmrodor, Vol. iij. 52—61: it now forms an appendix to the R. B. Mabinogion, pp. 297—309.
- ↑ Nennius calls him Bellinus, son of Minocannus, and makes him king of Britain in the time of Caesar, with whom he fights: see San-Marte's Nennius & Gildas, pp. 40-1 (§ 19).
- ↑ Bk. of Leinster, 4a, and elsewhere.
