Who was Mordred?

I apologize for the long absence. I’ve been rather occupied with a yeast cleanse diet that has had my brain addled for the past few weeks.

So here we go again. Who was Mordred? Good question. Most accounts agree that he is the son of king Arthur’s sister. Some call her Morgan le Fey, but Morgan is a man’s name, and it means, mor – or “meer” – meaning water. Gan – or guy – or man: water man! Others call Mordred’s mother Morgause and place her as the eldest daughter of queen Ygrain, Arthur’s mother. I like to call her Morguase, the faithful. Recall my earlier blogs about the word Fairy, the Spanish Fe, the Latin Fidelus? Fey is faith.

All we really know about Mordred is that he was a member of the royal family and appeared to be crown prince. He died at the Battle of Camlann, as did Arthur, though it is not specified in the earliest accounts if they were on the same side, or on opposing sides. Also, he had a wife named Guenivere. Some of the later accounts of Mordred claim he abducted Arthur’s queen Guenivere and tried to rule in his stead – usurpation by abduction. But I think it’s this whole thing about titles instead of names that seems to create the greatest amount of confusion.

It’s all possible, of course. But I can’t help thinking of an exhibition I attended during a trip to California some years ago that was about king Arthur. They made the claim that Arthur actually had three wives and they were all named Guenivere. As close as I can tell in my studies, the name means “White Priestess.” And all queens seemed to bear this title. So Arthur had a queen Guenivere and Mordred had a queen Guenivere. So should that make Mordred a bad guy? I don’t think so.

I think he was a legitimate son of Arthur’s sister, Morguase, the throne princess after her mother Ygraine. He had every right to the royal title of prince, and every right to marry a woman of importance, land and property, a Guenivere.

Here I end my speculations about the Celtic culture and the Legends of King Arthur, though I have much much more, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll get around to speculating some more.

Now I’m ready to move on to the real meat, what the search for Arthur finally led me to: The Celtic Christian Church and its great churchmen, Pelagius, Patrick & Gildas. These three are worthy of greater study by our LDS Scholars than they have been. These three kept a light burning through the dark ages of Europe and laid a foundation for the emergence of and thirst for truth that began with our Pilgrim Fathers and continues around the globe today.

Next: The Celtic Christian Church.

The Birth of Arthur

I have given much thought to the birth of Arthur and there are a couple of things that puzzle me.

1. Who was Ygain? What made her so desirable as to go to war over her?
2. Why was it necessary to take the baby Arthur and hide him until king Uther’s death?

All right – we left off with Merlin and his prophecies. One of his prophecies is that the sons of Constantine would come and destroy Vortigern. According to the annals, this is precisely what happened. The two boys who had been whisked away to the mainland, Aurelianus and Uther, returned with an army and chased Vortigern into south Wales, where they were able to trap him. Vortigern’s keep burned to the ground with him in it. Aurelianus, being the older of the two boys, became king.

Aurelianus was considered among the finest kings the Bretons had had. He was brave and good. He made it a point to rebuild all the churches in the land and keep the Saxons at bay. Sadly, he only reined for 10 years before he was assassinated. Upon his death, his brother Uther takes the throne.

Apparently, it’s at Uther’s coronation that he is introduced to the king of Cornwall and his wife Ygerna, or Ygrain. She is considered quite beautiful and desirable, insomuch that Uther is willing to go to war over her.

This, to me, this is déjà vu the Trojan War! As the story goes, Paris abducts Helen (later known as the face that launched a thousand ships) from Macedonia and takes her off to Troy. There is some indication that the Trojans and the Greeks have their cultural basis in the middle-east. So, was it really the face that launched a thousand ships, or was Helen a woman of land, wealth and royal connections? Paris hauling her off was marriage by abduction. By “marrying” her, he controlled her lands and trade routes and who knows what else! Now that makes sense to go to war over. In the end, the king of Macedonia gets Helen back, but then he’s murdered, if I remember right. The whole thing is just tragic.

Back to Breton. Uther goes to war against the king of Cornwall. However, for a long time he is unsuccessful in managing to get his hands of Ygrain. According to later stories, Uther has Merlin enchant him to look like the king of Cornwall. With this subterfuge, he is able to enter the castle and rape and abduct Ygrain. Meanwhile, the king of Cornwall is killed in battle. Uther gets his prize. He marries Ygrain.

If we accept that the Bretons held to Matrilinial rights of inheritance, Uther was simply trying to consolidate his right to rule by marrying a throne princess, a woman of land, wealth and royal connections. Uther had been raised on the mainland by his Roman relatives and had Roman ideas. He would know that to keep his crown he needed to marry a throne princess, but he would want an heir of his body to succeed after him.

Up to this point, Ygrain has anywhere from two to four daughters already. Each were eventually married off to kings. Or did the men become kings because they married these daughters. It’s a right puzzle, just because we don’t really know and I’m only reading between the lines.

This we know, Ygrain then gives birth to a baby boy, and almost immediately that boy is taken by Merlin and hidden so that no one knows where he is.

That brings us to point two. Why? According to some, this was done to preserve the boy against Saxons who would kill the baby. But surely Uther would have some resources to protect his children! And why is it that the boy is not brought forward until AFTER Uther’s death some 15 years later?

Here is my theory! Ygrain was indeed a throne princess, next in line after the sister of Aurelius and Uther. (The brothers would not be so readily accepted as kings without that matrilineal right to be king, either as the brothers of the Throne Princess, or as the husband of the Throne Princess.) But what if Ygrain was already with child by the king of Cornwall? Ah, now, that would put the child in danger. Uther would want a man child of his own to be king, but if Ygrain has already given birth to a boy, then yes, that would mean Uther would have no male heir to take the throne. So, Merlin hides the child, not from the Saxons, but from Uther. Ygrain, being royal and diplomatic, marries Uther, who is now, without question, king. However, he and Ygrain only succeed in having a daughter, Anne.

If you bring in the middle-eastern matrilineal rights of inheritance into the picture, then, for me, the birth and hiding of Arthur begins to make sense. At the death of Uther, the boy, aged 15, is brought forward. Both Merlin and Ygrain vouch for his rights. The boy is hailed battle commander and given the sword Excaliber. Thus begins the rein of Arthur.

It’s just a theory, but I like it.

Next: And so, who was Mordred?

The Prophecies of Merlin

In the book, “The Once and Future King,” Merlin the magician has a wonderful knowledge of the future because, it is said, he has lived life backwards. This is an interesting concept when you consider, by LDS doctrine, all great prophets have received the vision of all things past, present and future.

According to Norma Lorre Goodrich’s research, she states in her book, “Merlin,” published by Harper Perennial, 1988, “Not only was Merlin descended from royalty, but his mother was a nun,… As Son-of-the-Nun he was not only priestly, but high born, and would have been highly educated.’

As Ms. Goodrich grapples with Merlin’s identity, a few things become clear. His importance is based more on the identity of his mother than of his father. He has an enormous roll to play in establishing the royal house of his time and in directing its future course. He is Christian, as Arthur is Christian, and he has many prophecies attributed to him.

The Prophecy of Merlin as contained in The History of the Kings of Britain, by Geoffrey of Monmouth is long and complicated. It’s also available in print if you want to look it up. To me, it doesn’t make much sense, but little is known of the history of the time and what we have was written down hundreds of years before it was finally preserved by Geoffrey of Monmouth. So no one knows what it could have originally said. However, the consensus seems to be that the Prophecy of Merlin is based on older, more Hebraic, or Old Testament forms of writing. That’s quite a claim, I know, but I find the following prophecy attributed to Merlin to be quite interesting.

“The noble cleric Merlin says: ‘For [it is] certain That Britons at the last shall have this land again.’”
(Chronicle, Peter de Langtoft and Robert of of Brunne, edited by Thomas Hearne, 1725, Vol 1, Chap XXII, p. 7.)

According to all historical chronicles of the British Isles, the Saxons eventually forced the Bretons to leave their lands and scatter to Brittany and Normandy in the north of France. But I like this hopeful prophecy, it is reminiscent of some other prophecies you may be aware of.

Judah, from the Holy Bible, has been promised she shall have Jerusalem again. The children of Lehi, from the Book of Mormon, have been promised they shall have their lands of inheritance in the New World again.

I just find that interesting.

Next: The birth of Arthur

The Rise of Merlin

What an enigma this man is. Druid? Priest? Noble? Base? Bastard? Magician? Wise? When the records are obscure, there is really very little that can be known for sure. We have two early records, “Nennius History of the Bretons” and “The History of Great Briton” by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Geoffrey obviously takes much of his account of Merlin from Nennius, for they tell similar stories, but in the earlier “Nennius” the lad is called Ambrose. Geoffrey of Monmouth is the first to call him Merlin.

Merlin - the most famous magician of our western civilization.

Last time we left off with the usurpation of Vortigern to the kingship of the Bretons. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, he had made himself quite unpopular. According to Nennius, the man was just plain disgusting. However, the most dastardly thing this king did was to invite a Germanic tribe to the island as mercenaries: the notorious Saxons. If you are of English parentage, then you are of the Anglo Saxon race. The Saxon’s were German and they were pagan and they were devastatingly greedy. Once they started coming to the island, they came and they came and they came.

This was the number-one reason Vortigern was so unpopular with the locals. Vortigern consults his twelve wise men, or magicians as to what to do about the situation. They direct him to find a certain mountain and build a citadel there to protect himself. Vortigern thinks this is a great idea, finds a suitable situation and calls the builders to start. They don’t get very far. They build a wall and the next day, it’s gone – vanished! Or it’s tumbled down. Whatever, they can’t get the walls to stay up. Vortigern consults his magicians again. Now they sound like true pagan magicians. They tell him they have to find a boy without a father, kill him and mix his blood in the mortar. Only this way will the walls stand. The king sends messengers throughout the land seeking a boy born with no father. A couple of the searchers comes to a town and hears two boys arguing. One of the boys says to the other, “O boy without a father, no good will ever happen to you!” The messengers find the mother and she confesses she doesn’t know who the father of the boy is, so he’s taken to the citadel with the plan to slay him and sprinkle his blood on the foundations.

A few interesting points here:

1. Vortigern has twelve wise men he consults with. This is interesting because Arthur’s Round Table knights number twelve and sometimes twenty-four depending on who you are reading.
2. The twelve wise men do not appear to be fighting men, but priests of some kind, counselors. In Vortigern’s case, they are obviously pagan.
3. In the book of Mormon, the wicked king Noah has twenty-four priests as his counselors. We also know that good king Mosiah had priests as his counselors.

This is an interesting pattern found on two separate continents. Why would you have priests as counselors? Because in those days governments were sacred and you ruled by the will of God. Therefore, you had to know God’s law. Priests were schooled in the law.

Our young Ambrose/Merlin is not cowed in the least by the shenanigans going on. He’s very direct in asking what’s going on and why. He then demands the wise men be brought to him. In very forceful language he tells them all that killing him will not solve the problem. In fact, there is a pool under the citadel and this is what is causing the problem. He goes on and gives very specific information about what is in the pool – two sleeping serpents, one white and one red – and what it all means. “I will now unfold to you the meaning of this mystery! The pool is the emblem of this world, and the tent that of your kingdom: the two serpents are two dragons; the red serpent is your dragon, but the white serpent is the dragon of the people who occupy several provinces and districts of Britain…however, our people shall rise and drive away the Saxon race.…”

According to Nennius, the young boy knows exactly who he is, his name is Ambrose and his father was a Roman Consul. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, his mother was the daughter of a king.

The origins of Merlin are most compelling to me. I think it is interesting that the wise men say the citadel can only be completed if:

1. They find a boy without a father.
2. Shed his blood.

Many of the great prophets of antiquity have had miracle births. Noah’s father had been injured and so, supposedly could father no child. But he fathered Noah. Isaac, the son of Abraham, was born to his parents in their extreme old age. It was twenty years before Rebekah finally gave birth to Esau and Jacob. Samuel’s mother was barren until she prayed before the door of the tabernacle. Zachariah and Elizabeth were old when John, known as the Baptist, was born. They all reflect the miracle birth of the Messiah.

This deepens the mystery of this greatest magician of all time. Was he really just a magician? Or was he something more? Mage is another word for Wise, which is another word for Sage. It was wise men from the east that bore gifts to the Christ child, and they are known as the Magi. O how twisted everything gets through the centuries of dust and decay.

Geoffrey of Monmouth picks up the narrative. He says, “I had not yet reached this point in my story when Merlin began to be talked about very much, and from all sorts of places people of my own generation kept urging me to publish his Prophecies.”


Next time: The Prophecies of Merlin

King Arthur – According to Geoffrey of Monmouth

It’s time to start putting all this together.

I take the following information from the next written record of Arthur, “The History of the Kings of Britain” by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who lived and wrote in the 1100’s A.D., centuries after Arthur was supposed to have lived. He claims to have gotten his material from ‘a certain very ancient book written in the British language.’ (Introduction, pg. 11) They think the book was in Welsh. Here is a shortened, paraphrased version of the story.

In the year 410 A.D., the Visigoths, a barbarian tribe from Germany, coveting the lifestyle of the Romans, made their way to Rome and sacked it. That means they burned and pillaged and hauled away booty. This was the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire. In order to protect itself, what was left of Rome called its border troops home. The Roman soldiers who had kept the peace in Britain withdrew to the mainland. The Pictish peoples of the north, always warlike and fearsome, spilled south and began to wreak havoc.

In this time of chaos and danger, the clergy took council and selected Guithilinus, an Archbishop, to travel to Brittany to get an army. He approaches King Aldroennus and offers him the kingship of Britain. King Aldroennus is not tempted. He likes being ruler in his own land which he rules in liberty. But he offers his brother, Constantine and two thousand troops. Constantine accepts, raises his army and goes to Britain with Guithelinus. The council there accepts him, places the crown on his head, and gives him a noble woman to marry. They have three sons, Constans, Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther Pendragon. Constans, as the firstborn, is given to the church. Aurelius and Uther are given to Guithilinus to be raised, or educated.

After serving as king for ten years, a Pict manages to assassinate Constantine. A disagreement arises about who to put on the throne. Constans is in a monastery. One faction is for putting Aurelius on the throne, another for putting Uther on the throne. But they are all very young. Still others are for putting some other member of the royal family on the throne.

Let’s stop here and take a look at what we have so far.

1. It is the clergy, the spiritual leader of the day, who goes in search of someone to be king and protect the people of the land from enemies which abound on all sides. Am I stretching things to suggest that this sounds like Samuel, the prophet and spiritual leader of his day, seeking out and anointing first Saul, and then David to be kings of Israel? We will see the same pattern with Merlin and Arthur.

2. The firstborn son, Constans, is sent to a monastery. This is just not Roman at all. In fact, it sounds very much like the ways of the tribes of Israel. All firstborn, especially sons, belonged to the Lord. However, once they left Egypt, the tribe of Levites and the sons of Aaron were chosen to serve as the priests and teachers for everyone. Of the rest of the tribes of Israel, they were to pay a ransom of 5 shekels to the priests and Levites, for their firstborns. But what do you do if you are a tribe of Israel without Levites among you to officiate? You go back to the original law. Your firstborn belong to the Lord, they belong to the church. Remember, at this time, no matter what Geoffrey of Monmouth says, the Church in Breton was not Roman. It is referred to as the Celtic Christian church by scholars.

3. What royal family? “Still others are for putting some other member of the royal family on the throne.” That’s what Goeffrey said. Perhaps the better question is, whose royal family? It would have to be the family of Constantine’s unnamed wife. Apparently, she wasn’t just noble, she was royal and that made her sons royal. So why the disagreement? Why not take one of the boys and plunk them on the throne and designate a regent? Perhaps it was because there was no sister, no throne princess, to give the boys a legitimate claim to the throne. Perhaps Roman ways – inheritances passing from father to son – was in conflict with Breton ways – the king was either the brother of the throne princess or married to her.

Out of this conflict rises Vortigern, leader of the Gewissei. He takes the direct Roman approach. He goes to the monastery where the first-born son Constans is living, removes him, dresses him up in royal robes and sits him on the throne. Poor boy, he’s only eight or nine years old. He’s been trained to be a churchman, not a ruler of government. He turns all the affairs of the kingdom over to Vortigern. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Vortigern delights in this and, plotting to get the kingship for himself, eventually has Constans assassinated by Picts and takes the throne for himself.

In the ensuing chaos, those who had the care of the two younger brothers, Aurelius and Uther, flee overseas to Brittany for their safety.

Uneasy lies the crown on the head of an usurper who has no inherited right to the throne, by birth or by marriage.

Next time: The Rise of Merlin

Matrilineal Rights of Inheritance in Britain

Well, that’s a title for you. It took a bit of practice before I could even pronounce Matrilineal without tripping over my tongue.

Reading between the lines and trying to strip away Roman influence from the writings about the ancient Bretons, I began to develop a theory about what kind of culture these people lived. I started by combing the internet, searching under “Matriarch” and “Matrilineal.” I knew there were islands in the pacific where the women had great influence. They were the wise ones and often, if not battle commanders, they were at least held in great respect. So I wondered where else I might find woman centered cultures. To my surprise, one of the first sites to pop up pointed me to…

EGYPT!

According to an article by Nancy Luomala, “Matrilineal Reinterpretation of Some Egyptian Sacred Cows,” (http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/luomala.html ), rights of inheritance to the throne of Egypt came through the female line. The eldest daughter of the queen would be the Throne Princess. Her brother or husband would serve as king – or Pharoah.

Remember the movie, “The Ten Commandments,” with Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner? They were both vying for the hand of Nefertiri, the throne princess. Whoever married her would be the next Pharoah! What do you know! Hollywood actually got something right for a change.

The more I studied, the more convinced I became that my theory was correct. I found matrilineal cultures everywhere: the Pacific Islands, the Middle East, among the Indian tribes of the Americas. Everywhere! So why not Scotland and Wales?

Why would the mother be so important? Well, think about it. In a culture based on rights of inheritance, where you had to be sure about bloodlines and knowing your tribe and rights, the lineage of a child to a mother is absolute. No DNA tests are required. If your mother belongs to the Wolf Tribe, so do you. If your mother is of royal birth, from a royal mother, so are you. Did you know that even today, if your mother is Jewish, you are Jewish? If your father is Jewish, but your mother a Gentile, guess what, you are Gentile too.

In the Americas, many native aboriginal tribes are also matriarchal such as the Huron, Hopi, Navajo, Iroquois Confederacy, Cherokee and others. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrilineality)Though it was a man who sat in councils as a chief, it was the wise woman of the tribe who sat behind him and made sure he was following the agreed upon counsel. When you are born, you are of your father’s tribe, but you belong to your mother’s tribe. It is considered incestuous to marry within your mother’s tribe, even to the 6th, 7th, 8th cousin removed. But if you marry your first cousin on your father’s side, it’s OK!

Let’s get back to ancient Egypt. It is true that many Pharoahs married their throne princess sisters, but according to Nancy Luomala, these relationships were not incestuous.
“There is no evidence that the queen would have sexual relations with her brother-king. The sister and brother of the ruling pair could each have a consort or consorts for sexual relations, but these spouses were not included in the possession and transmission of property. The queen did have intercourse with her consort-king and the resulting female progeny constituted the royal line, earning the title of ‘Royal Mother’ by right of birth.” (http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/luomala.html)
In other words, the only thing that was important was having a baby daughter to be the next throne princess. That sounds like the Pictish people! Or do the Picts sound like Egyptians!

The most interesting find was an actual, living matrilineal culture that was flourishing in Indonesia. They are the Minangkabau peoples, an extensive and influential ethnic group. Here’s how they function.

All property is owned by the women and is passed on from mother to daughter, with the expectation that the oldest daughter who inherits the house, will take care of her parents in their old age. When a couple marry, the young man leaves his parents house and moves in with his bride’s family.

Though the property is owned by the women, they appoint a male relative, usually a maternal nephew, to run the business. If they do not like how he is managing their affairs, they will fire him and hire another male relative to run the business or oversee the property. The young men are expected to get an education so they can run these businesses effectively. Other young men are educated to become their priests and teachers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minangkabau) This is how they have meshed well with Islam. Most Minangs are Muslim, a very patriarchal religion. The women own the property, but the men run it.

As I’ve pointed out before, our western civilization was and still is heavily influenced by the strongly patriarchal Greeks and Romans. Therefore, you and I may have difficulty in understanding this very different culture. But if we can – if we can open our minds to these ideas of Matriarchy and Matrilineal Rights of Inheritance, the world of King Arthur may become more understandable, more reachable. We may be able to move the stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table from the realm of mere myth and legend into the world of probably reality.

The Puzzle of Prince Modred

If there is little contemporary source material relating to Arthur, there is none about Mordred, the crown prince who was to come after Arthur. It’s Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of Great Britain, written in the twelfth century A.D., who brings king Modred to light, and it’s not a very nice light. All we can truly say is that Modred died at the battle of Camblan, the same battle where Arthur is mortally wounded. According to Norma Lorre Goodrich in her book, King Arthur, she says, “Regarding Modred, the voices of the Scots, raised in protest over the centuries, were drowned in contumely. ‘Modred was no traitor, nor a murderer,’ they argued during the Renaissance. ‘He was our beloved king.’” He becomes a puzzle.

So here’s how the Hollywood version of the story goes. Ygrain, Arthur’s mother, had two to four daughters before she gave birth to Arthur. Once she married Uther, she had one more daughter called, by some accounts, Anne. Legend tells us that one of Ygrain’s older daughters is the notorious Morgause or Morgan la Fey, a woman learned in the arts of enchantment. It is said she ensorcelled Arthur and forced her to lay with him. From this ‘incestuous’ union came the child Mordred who was raised to hate his father. He is pictured as power hungry and a scoundrel. Through treachery, he helped bring about the downfall of Arthur’s kingdom.

Other legends tell us that Arthur and Guinevere had at least one son named Lohot. So why was Modred, the supposed illegitimate child of an incestuous relationship, designated the crown prince and not Lohot? It was a puzzle.

In the meantime, as I read from various books and sources, other questions began to arise. For the important person Merlin was, we only know his mother’s name – Nun. The same is true for Saint David, that patron saint of Wales. His mother’s name is, interestingly enough, St. Non. But we do not know the father’s names for either of these very important men. In fact, as you go through the list of saints in Scotland and Wales, the mother’s names are most often noted, but not the father’s.

In fact, within the legends women play extremely powerful roles, so powerful, the authors of the old histories make them quite villainous in some cases.

1. Guithelinus, a father of the church in Briton, seeing the desperate cause of the Bretons after the collapse of Rome and the removal of its troops from the islands, goes to Brittany on the mainland seeking a battle commander. He offers him the marriage of a landed and wealthy princess. This sets the whole Arthurian legend in motion.
2. The lovely Ygrain. Men fought and died because of her. She is the mother of at least two very prominent children, Arthur and Morgause, and seems to be the matriarch of a vast royal lineage and household.
3. Guinevere, Arthur’s queen, is more than just an ornament to the crown and someone to provide an heir to the throne. She was a battle queen in her own right and had lands and wealth that were her own.
4. And then there’s Morgause, or Morgan la Fey. I believe they are one and the same person. Whoever she really was, she was very powerful, insomuch that later ages feared her.
5. Nimue is the woman who is said to have tricked Merlin into trapping himself into a cave at a critical point of the story of Camalot.

Now, let me add to this puzzle another intriguing piece. Centuries before Arthur, a band of displaced Scandinavians sail to the shores of Ireland. First off, they abduct the women, looking for wives. The local men chase after them and find them before they can take off with their bootie. The locals agree that the Scandinavians may choose wives from among their daughters, however, they must agree that all wealth and property belongs to the women and is to be inherited by their firstborn daughters. This is agreed to and the Scandinavians depart with the women who agree to go with them. They sail to northern Scotland. This is the origin of the Picts, a people fearless in battle and so wild, the Romans could only build a wall in some vain effort to control them – the wall of Hadrian, which parts of can still be seen today in Scotland.


Now, the Picts eventually got around this injunction that all property was inherited through the women. They would marry, then wait until a daughter was born, then murder their wives and become regents to the property, controlling it until their daughters were of age. Hmmm.

Well, my curiosity was piqued. Remember, histories are written by the conquerors. The British Isles may not have been fully conquered by the state of Rome, but it was fully conquered by the Roman Catholic Church, which was immersed in Roman ideology, values and virtues. Rome was highly patriarchal, monogamous, steeped in Greek philosophy and very anti-Semetic. These are the people who wrote the histories of Great Britain.

I wondered what I would find if I could strip away the Roman view. What kind of culture would emerge among the Bretons? What I found not only startled me – it made the Bible split wide open.

Happy 80th Birthday to my Dad, July 13, 2010.

The Sword, the Stone and the Mirror

I’ve been trying to find a certain resource but have been unable to locate where I read this little tid-bit, so please forgive my tardiness with this blog. Between trying to get the yard cleaned and planted between rain storms and trying to find this reference, I’ve put off writing. Well, today is a good day to speculate.

Arthur is said to have had three wives, all named Guinevere. According to several scholars, as much as we can tell, the name means “priestess.” In fact, as we have seen, most all the names we come across in these legends are titles.

But THE Guinevere, the mistress of Stirling, Scotland, queen to Arthur was, according to Norma Lorre Goodrich in her book, “Guinevere,” was a powerful woman who had land and authority, and carried symbols of her own. She was likely Pictish and one of the symbols of her rule and wealth was a mirror. As far as I can tell, that mirror, combined with the sword and the stone were the over-riding symbols of the kingdom.

Interestingly enough, one day while reading some obscure reference, the one I can’t find, I learned that the ancient treasures of Japan were a sword, a curved gem and a mirror. It is said that these were actual objects, symbols of the imperial house of Japan, but they were lost.

Huh!

So, clear over in Scotland, we have a kingdom symbolized with a sword, a stone and a mirror. And clear over in Japan, we have a kingdom symbolized with a sword, a stone and a mirror.

Now, let’s come to America and “legends” of the Mormons. Joseph Smith took out of the ground, not only the gold plates, but a sword, the sword of Laban, stones, the seer stones he used to translate with, and what he called a Liahona, a ball of curious workmanship, a compass. These items were symbols of a long lost American civilization.

The sword of Laban and the seer stones relate to our topic, but what about the Liahona? As far as I can tell, one had to look into the ball to receive its instructions. Those instructions reflected the faith of the people of Lehi as they traveled to the promised land, much like a mirror is intended to reflect truth, whether we like what it tells us or not.

In the Book of Mormon, the book of Jacob, there is given the parable of the Olive Tree. It tells of a great tree that is dying. The Lord of the vineyard, in an effort to save it and preserve fruit to himself, cuts out all the dead branches and burns them, cuts out at least three living twigs and plants them elsewhere in the vineyard. The parable is likened to the house of Israel at the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The House of Israel, steeped in idolatry, was spiritually dying, but three living branches were exported to other lands. We know from the Book of Mormon, that one was here on the American Continent. Where were the other two?

Huh!

I just think it’s interesting, that’s all.

By the way, much thanks to my mom and dad, who keep asking, “Have you posted that blog yet?”

The Sword AND the Stone, Part Two

Excaliber – ah! the romance of the name - the mighty sword of the great king Arthur.

I got curious one day and decided to find out if there was a meaning to the name. And there is. It’s Latin.

EX: meaning “out of,” like, “expel,” or “ex-wife.” So you are “out of” the school or club, or “out of” your marriage or relationship.”

CALIBER: meaning “a mold,” like you cast ceramic or porcelain figures from a mold.

Hmm, Ex-caliber, “out of a mold….” Well that didn’t sound romantic at all. But if it was out of a mold – a mold of what? Could the sword have been a copy of some other famous sword?

Here I get into pure, but fun and interesting speculation. As my mind spun about the idea of the famous sword Excaliber I remembered my trip to Switzerland in 1991. My friend and I had just finished a tour and were waiting for a train to take us to Basil, where we would board a passenger liner for a three day tour down the Rhine River.

We had a few hours to kill and discovered the National Historical Museum of Switzerland just across the street from the train station in Zurich. It was a fabulous museum. They had just finished renovating three of their 6 major exhibits, one of which was a history of warfare. As we entered the hall, we passed a long line of mannequins dressed in all the different Swiss military uniforms through the centuries. In the hall was an incredible display of middle ages war weapons. What fascinated me most were the huge two-handed broadswords. They were massive, many as tall as I was or taller. I’m 5 foot 2 inches. Then you look at the armor and the uniforms and men of the middle ages weren’t much taller than me, about 5 foot, 5 inches on average. And I asked myself, where did this concept for a weapon come from? It couldn’t have been the Romans. They carried short, light weight, easy to carry swords. And of course, only the wealthy could afford such a large sword. Steel was expensive – and that much steel was very expensive. Besides, anyone who had the strength and expertise to wield such a sword would be a terror on the battle field. They could cut a man in two with a huge sword like that.

This from http://militaryhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_long_sword_or_two_handed_sword#ixzz0naSAH4OO
“The two most famous users of these long sword types were the Scottish highlanders with their two handed claymores and the Germanic Landsknecht mercenaries. The most feared of the Landsknecht would be called a Doppelsöldner, (Double soldier) and would receive twice the pay of a regular fighter. These men would carry the zweihänder, a two-handed sword as long as a man was tall. Its main purpose was to down charging horsemen and cut off oncoming pike heads.”

Note, the most famous users were Scottish and Germanic.

I was puzzled for some time about those two handed swords – but just kept the info in the back of my head. Then, some years ago, when I was in the middle of reading all this Arthurian material, I happened to have the television on during some PBS program while I was puttering around the house. Some topic of politics was being discussed. I wasn’t paying much attention until the man being interviewed made some comment about the situation being like when the Goliath sword would be removed from the Temple and paraded around Jerusalem.

My mind churned! When the boy David had killed the Philistine giant Goliath, he had taken the man’s sword and cut off his head. How big, do you suppose, the sword of a 9 ½ foot giant would be? 5 foot? 6 foot? In ancient days, when you won a battle, you took booty from the enemy. It would only make sense for David to take Goliath’s weapons and armor. According to this man at least the sword was kept as a national treasure to Israel – and surely it would become a symbol of the kingship. But like so many treasures of Israel, it disappeared when the Babylonians despoiled Jerusalem and took the people captive to Babylonia.

Now we are back to the tradition of Jeremiah taking one of the daughters of king Zedekiah to the British Isles. What else might he have taken? What tokens of Kingship? If they did take the Goliath sword, by the time we reach the age of Arthur, that sword would be 1500 years old. It would be too brittle to take into battle.

It is said that Merlin forged Arthur’s sword. What if he made a mold from the original Goliath sword, then cast and forged a new sword? Then, he handed that massive beast to a 15 year old boy who could not only pick it up, but could wield it in battle. You’d make the lad your battle commander too!

The sword Excaliber was an important sword. It was noted by one scholar that when Gawain went about the country as a judge, he took the sword with him – a token of the king – meaning that what he did, he did in the name of the king.

That king became so powerful in the minds and hearts of men of that age that others, wanting power and glory for themselves, tried to be like him, making their own two-handed six foot long swords to take into battle. I can think of no other inspiration for such massive swords.

So, was the legend “Whoso Pulleth Out the Sword of the Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England?"

Or was it, Whoso has this Sword and this Stone, is Rightwise King!



Next: The Sword the Stone and the Mirror.

Photos from: http://www.thearma.org/essays/2HGS.html

The Sword AND the Stone, Part One

I changed my mind. I don’t want to talk about the guise or geas, yet. I misspelled it last week. Sorry about that.

I want to talk about what made Arthur right wise born king of all England. T.H. White penned it beautifully in his masterful story, "The Once and Future King."

“Whoso Pulleth Out the Sword of the Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England."

Now we are getting into the stuff of pure legend. The sword in the stone is not mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth and it certainly is not in the contemporary records of Gildas or Nennius. The legend appears much later. But what is this sword and what is this stone? Is it pure legend or is there some basis in fact.

Ever heard of the Blarney Stone?

Blarney Stone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Blarney Stone (Irish: Cloch na Blarnan) is a block of bluestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle, Blarney about 5 miles (8 km) from Cork, Ireland. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery). The stone was set into a tower of the castle in 1446. The castle is a popular tourist site in Ireland, attracting visitors from all over the world to kiss the Stone and tour the castle and its gardens.


Origins The stone is said to have been presented to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn; popular legend holds that this was a piece of the Stone of Scone. This stone was then installed at McCarthy's castle of Blarney. When the castle was rebuilt in 1446, Dermot McCarthy had the stone preserved in the new castle. Although colourful, this folk legend cannot be true as the stone was removed from Scotland 18 years before Bannockburn.

And this takes us to the Stone of Scone.

Stone of Scone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Stone of Scone (pronounced /ˈskuːn/), also commonly known as the Stone of Destiny or the Coronation Stone is an oblong block of red sandstone, used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, the monarchs of England, and, more recently, British monarchs. Historically, the artifact was kept at the now-ruined Scone Abbey in Scone, near Perth, Scotland. Other names by which it has sometimes been known include Jacob's Pillow Stone and the Tanist Stone, and in Scottish Gaelic, clach-na-cinneamhain, clach Sgàin, and Lia(th) Fàil[1]. Its size is about 26 inches (660 mm) by 16.75 inches (425 mm) by 10.5 inches (270 mm) in size and weighs approximately 336 pounds (152 kg). The top bears chisel-marks. At each end of the stone is an iron ring, apparently intended to make transport easier

What? It’s sometimes known as Jacob’s Pillow Stone? Yes. Remember in the book of Genesis? Jacob had to leave home so his brother Esau wouldn’t harm or kill him since he got the birthright blessing. On his way to relatives in Haran, he lay down to sleep, using a stone for a pillow, and had the dream of the ladder to heaven with Angels ascending and descending. Upon awakening, Jacob set the stone upright and poured oil on it to sanctify it. Ever after, the stone was known as a seer, or revelation stone. And tradition somehow gets it to Ireland and Scotland. Hmmm, these Israelites seem to get around!

Now, do I believe either of these stones could be Jacob’s stone? No, I don’t. I don’t think Jacob slept on a stone that big. I think it would be more the size of a rolled pillow on which to rest his head. Be that as it may, the Stone of Scone has been around since 600 A.D. when, after the downfall and scattering of the Bretons, a minor tribal chief in Scotland suddenly produces this stone, claims that because he has it and it is sacred, that HE is right wise king of Scotland. When the English defeated the Scottish some centuries later, to demoralize them, the Stone was removed from Scotland and taken to Westminster Abbey and stuffed under the throne there. Upon this throne all English and British monarchs have been crowned ever since. The Stone of Scone was returned to Edinburgh some years ago as a good faith gesture to the Scottish, but must be sent back to Westminster Abbey when a new king or queen is crowned.

So, there’s the stone – the first part of this stuff of legend. And whosoever has it can be crowned king!

Next, what about that sword?

I will be in Hawaii next week, so please be patient. You’ll get to learn my speculative thoughts about that sword in a couple of weeks. I think it’s exciting.

The Pen-dragon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Wales_2.svg

I like that title. I’ve been intrigued by it. Pen-dragon. Uther Pen-dragon. Arthur Pen-dragon. But does it have any meaning? We are all familiar with the traditional image of the dragon: A large serpent, with leathery wings like a bats, horned snout, breathing fire and wreaking havoc. A dragon is a terror in any neighborhood.

Several years ago I picked up a book while shopping at “Media Play.” I liked that store and I still miss it. The book is called, “Myths of China and Japan,” by Donald A. Mackenzie. I thought it would be a collection of stories and myths. How wrong I was. It was a scholarly work, first published in the early 1900’s. This author was making a case for tracing and connecting the myths and technologies of China back to Egypt! And he started making connections on dragon lore from China to the Polynesian Islands to Central America, even to Scotland! of all places. That really got my attention, for I was in the thick of studying the Arthurian stories and legends.

One of the most important Arthurian legends dealing with dragons is the story of Merlin as a boy. Vortigern is king, but no one likes him. He brought the Saxons to England as mercenaries, then lost control of them. Vortigern then went into Wales to build a fortress, but the ground on which he built was not stable. The walls kept falling down every night. His soothsayers said that in order for the walls to stand, he had to find a boy born with no father, slay him and mix his blood in with the mortar. So the search went far and wide. The boy Merlin was found and brought to the fortress to be slaughtered, but the boy told them it would do no good. The wall was falling down because there was a pool of water under the place where they were building, and if they dug deep, they would find the pool in which they would find two serpents sleeping. But finding the pool would disturb the serpents and they would fight each other. One was a red dragon and the other a white dragon. The red dragon would defeat the white dragon for a time, but then the white dragon would destroy the red dragon. Merlin explained that the red dragon represented Britain and the white dragon the Saxons. The red dragon would eventually be driven from the pool. According to the legends, this happened, which astonished Vortigern and everyone else.

To this day, the symbol of Wales is the red dragon and most of the oldest stories place Uther and Arthur in this location.

So what is so important about dragons? And why the title, Pen-dragon? Well, as I’ve been trying to point out, there seems to be some connection between the British Isles and the culture of the middle east. We know in Hebrew that the word “ben” means “son of.” It’s not that big a leap from “ben” to “pen.” So could the title, Pen-dragon, mean “Son of the dragon?”

And why take that title? Because they were men of war. Were Uther and Arthur father and son? I’ll address that some other time. Frankly, I don’t think so. That they were related, probably, but they were both battle commanders for their people and so could both carry the same title, “Son of the dragon.”

Now, let’s get to what a dragon is. According to Donald A. McKenzie, “The Chinese dragon is a strange mixture of several animals…. The scales number 117, of which 81 are imbued with good invluences (yang) and 36 with bad influence (yin), for the dragon is partly a Preserver and partly a Destroyer.”

When we go to the scriptures we find the same tale.

Rev. 12: 3-4,
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the a third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

This sounds very much like an intent to destroy. Then there is this from Jeremiah.

Jer. 51: 34, 37
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
• • •
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.

History proves that the conquering Babylonians were in turn conquered by the Persians. It was all death and destruction.

Then we have this from the Book of Mormon.

Mosiah 20: 11
11 And it came to pass that the people of Limhi began to drive the Lamanites before them; yet they were not half so numerous as the Lamanites. But they fought for their lives, and for their wives, and for their children; therefore they exerted themselves and like dragons did they fight.

Alma 43: 44
44 And they were inspired by the Zoramites and the Amalekites, who were their chief captains and leaders, and by Zerahemnah, who was their chief captain, or their chief leader and commander; yea, they did fight like dragons, and many of the Nephites were slain by their hands, yea, for they did smite in two many of their head-plates, and they did pierce many of their breastplates, and they did smite off many of their arms; and thus the Lamanites did smite in their fierce anger.

In the Book of Mormon, the term dragon is used only in context of war.

The other night I turned on the TV and caught a portion of the Nature program on our local PBS station. It was interesting as they showed us how lethal and impressive crocodiles are. They patiently lay in wait, hardly to be seen, just below the surface of the water. When a prey gets close enough, they attack at lightening speeds up to 25 miles per hour. Once they grasp their prey, they do not let go. The prey is dragged into the waters and rolled and rolled until it drowns.

It’s a pretty strong metaphor, “…like dragons did they fight.” There have been crocodiles in the waters of the Nile in Egypt from the beginning.

How fascinating this dragon lore: from the Americas, to the Polynesian Islands to the lands of China and Japan. And according to Donald McKenzie, the dragon myth has its roots buried in the mud of the Nile river of Ancient Egypt, the cultural center of the middle-eastern world.

Once again we can tie the lore of the British Isles to the middle-east.

We should really name him Arthur, Son of War, Battle Commander to the Bretons.

Next time: The Celtic Guise and The American Indian Totem. (I’ve got some research to do on this one.)

Resources:
-“Myths of China and Japan,” by Donald A. MacKenzie, Gramercy Books, New York, Copyright, 1994.
-“The History of the Kings of Great Britain,” Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis Thorpe, published by Penguin books. Translation copyright 1966 by Lewis Thorpe.

What a Little Plow Can Tell Us.

www.unc.edu/~nielsen/ soci011/hs7/hs7003.jpg

This blog is going to be rather short. I bring up the plow because when I read this little statement by Charles Hamilton Smith in his book “Ancient Costumes of Great Britain and Ireland,” it made me sit up and take note.

British mode of tilling the ground was the over treading plough and the mattock. This mode was practiced by the Egyptians. – page 30.

This is a handwritten note in a notebook, so I’m likely paraphrasing rather than quoting.

But I was intrigued. Britain is a long way from Egypt. Of course, the Egyptian style plow had been around for a long time, and there are many underdeveloped countries that still use this kind of plow today. But there are other ancient cultures that had no plow whatsoever, like the Mayan. To top it off, the Bretons made theirs of iron. They were great metal workers.

We know good technology travels. Look how fast printing traveled and the computer. So who brought this plow to the British Isles? Was it developed in isolation? Probably not. It was likely transported from the Middle East. But who brought it?

Ah, there’s the question! Could it be those Israelites just show up everywhere?

Next: The Pen-dragon.

Who Were the Druids?

The ancient Celtic languages of the British Isles were oral languages. In other words, they had no written language, therefore, we know only what their enemies said of them – namely the Romans, so, regretfully, we know very little about the history of this piece of the world, and we know even less about the ancient Druids. Today, the very name conjures up ideas of mysticism, magic and the occult.

Two years ago I had the opportunity to visit Stonehenge in Great Britain with a friend while on vacation. We were not allowed to get very close. So many visitors over the decades had taken its toll on the monument and the curators were working to conserve the landmark. However, one day a year, June 21, the summer solstice, the ropes are taken down and people can get up close and personal.

This is also a time for the strange folk wearing hooded robes and chanting in monosyllables to show up. This has become the modern day view of Druidism.

We now know that Stonehenge is no more mystical than any other observatory. That’s what it is. It accurately calculates the lunar and solar calendar (“Mindsteps to the Cosmos,” by Gerald S. Hawkins). It’s still a mystery as to how it was built and who built it, but we know its purpose. It’s a calendar.

All we really know of the Druids is what the Romans tell us, “Strabo, Diodorus, Posidonius and Julius Caesar, who portray them as overseeing bloody religious rituals.” (http://skepdic.com/druids.html)

In fact, it’s the Romans who claim the Druids committed human sacrifice – and that gave them permission to round them up by the hundreds and put them to death wherever they found them. More likely, they needed to get rid of the Druids because they were the only force who had a chance to unite all the fractious Breton tribes into a united front that could threaten the Roman invaders.

Of course, I cannot find this reference, but I did read an article some years ago about burnt remains in known Druidic alters. No human remains were found. However, they did find remains of cattle, goats, sheep and pigeons. That pretty much sums up what everyone else in the ancient world was sacrificing. Even in the Book of Leviticus, the various sacrifices are of cattle, goats, sheep and doves.

Now here’s the interesting part – what little is known or surmised by scholars – the Bretons had a Caste system society: the priestly caste, the warrior caste, the merchant caste and the farmer caste. The Celtic society was free enough that you could move from one caste to another, based on birth, rank or ambition. You find this same caste system in India, however, unlike the Celts, in India, once born into a caste, you cannot get out of it for love or money. They have one other caste, “untouchables.” But I find the similarities interesting – even if I don’t understand it all. These countries are so far apart – and the Middle East lies in between.

But, I digress.

We do know the Druids had three levels, or orders. To keep it simple because different scholars give them different names, I’ve distilled it down to the following:

The Bard – keepers of histories, traditions, poetry and genealogies.
The Priest – overseer of sacrifices & festivals and foretells the future.
The Druid – Lawyer, judge and philosopher.

Druidic education could take up to twenty years. They studied medicine, astronomy, folk histories, religious rituals, genealogies and we don’t know what else. As Judges they handled disputes between individuals, crimes - including man-slaughter, boundary disagreements, inheritances and so forth. And it was all by memorization.

The importance of a knowledge of astronomy cannot be overstated. You had to know the calendar in order to know when to have certain festivals. The Druidic or Celtic calendar was lunar and sometimes difficult to calculate. Every three years an additional 30 days had to be added to adapt to the solar calendar. Everything was determined by a calendar, which it was the Druids responsibility to maintain.

Interestingly enough, all these descriptions of what a Druid is and does pretty well fits in with what a Levitical Priest does. When the Tribes of Israel were brought out of Egypt and eventually settled in Canaan, the tribe of Levi had no landed inheritance. They were given cities instead, scattered throughout the lands. What was their function? Only a handful in Jerusalem actually performed the sacrifices. So what did the rest do? They studied the Law of Moses. They were judges, surgeons, healers, lawyers and astronomers. The Lord had prescribed many festivals and in order to properly observe them, you had to know the calendar. By the way, the Hebrew calendar is lunar.

So, were the Druids actually Levitical Priests? There is no evidence that they were, but by studying them and what they did we do find a similarity between them and the priestly practices found in many cultures from the Middle East. Hmmm.

It was something I just found interesting.

Next: What a Little Plow Can Tell Us.

(Information about Druids taken from: “The Celtic World,” by Barry Cunliffe, McGraw-Hill publishers. “Ancient Costumes of Great Britain and Ireland,” by Charles Hamilton Smith, Arch Cape Press publishers. And, Wickipedia.com.)

Arthur – What Means the Name?

When we go that far back into history where written records become scarce or non-existent and all that is left are oral traditions, names get lost and forgotten. As I dug through books and scholarly attempts to unearth a historical Arthur, one thing became clear. This was not a man’s name, but his title. In fact, nearly everyone from that period is known by a title, not a name. Take for instance, Gwenevere, or Genivieve or the modern, Jennifer. It comes from the Welsh, Gwenhwyfar: Gwen, meaning White, and hwyfar, meaning Priestess. In its simplest form, it means “Fair one” or “White One.”

I was at some Arthurian exhibit years ago – wish I could remember where – but in the exhibit, they pointed out that Arthur had three wives and they were all named Gwenevere, or , Gwenhwyfar. In Norma Goodrich’s book, “Guinevere,” she makes a compelling case that the name Lancelot is a French corruption of L’Ancelot, taken from the Latin, Anguselus, or, in modern English, “The Angus,” a Scottish title which exists today. Even Merlin appears to be more a title than a name. We’ll get to him later.

Apparently, anciently, persons of note were not called by their given names, but by their titles. So perhaps the name Arthur is a title. If so, it explains why no historian has been able to locate the man.

So what could Arthur mean? Well, let’s look at thinkbabynames.com. Here is their definition of Arthur:

It is of Celtic origin. King Arthur of Britain (sixth century) and his Round Table of knights have become legendary figures. His name was first found in the Latin form Artorius, which is of obscure origin. Other possible sources include "artos", the Celtic word for "bear"; an Irish Gaelic word meaning "stone";

I had read of Celtic, “Bear” and Irish Gaelic, “stone,” before, so this was nothing new, but years ago I read that Arthur may have been derived from Arturus – or Artorius as listed above, which, according to the forgotten author, was a Latin form for the word, “father.” In an effort to be factual, I went looking on-line to find out if that were so. Nowhere could I find a definition of Arturus related to Father. All I found was a reference to Arcturus, a star found in “The Bear” constellation. That fits with what we already know, but by now, my theory about the title Arthur was in grave jeopardy. However, I did find this in wiktionary.org.

From Old Irish aite (“foster father”) < Proto-Indo-European *átta.

Now we’re getting somewhere. I may be stretching some here. Ok, I’m stretching a lot, but look at this: átta – aite – art – artos – Arthur. That Arthur could be a corrupted form of the word Father makes sense as a title. I will try to explain.

As I studied more and more about the Celtic culture of Great Britain, the more Middle-Eastern they appeared. Their years are marked from Autumn to Autumn. This is where our modern Holloween comes from. It’s an ancient year-end rite which Roman Catholicism turned into the Eve of All Saints Day or All Hallow’s Day. All Hallow’s day becomes Halloween, which is October 31. And look, among the Jews the New Year is Rosh-Hashannah, which happens in the Autumn as well, usually falling in the end of September or sometime in October. There’s more. The Celtic day was also from sundown to sundown, just like for the Jews.

The more I studied the Celtic culture, the more connections to the Middle-East I found, including matrilineal rights of inheritance, a way of life which plays an important role in the Celtic culture, and can be found in Egypt and many other Middle-Eastern cultures. These ideas were beginning to fit in with the theory of Israel dwelling in the British Isles.

One day at work, I was watching a short dramatic video about the visit of Naaman, the Syrian military commander, to the Prophet Elisha in hopes of being cured of his leprosy. When told to bath in the Jordan River seven times, he turns away disgusted.

“And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?” (2 Kings: 5:13)

These servants called their military commander “Father.” We find the same thing in The Book of Mormon.

“And now, whether they were overtaken by Antipus we knew not, but I said unto my men: Behold, we know not but they have halted for the purpose that we should come against them, that they might catch us in their snare; Therefore what say ye, my sons, will ye go against them to battle? And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites. For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army of Antipus.” (Alma 56: 43-46 emphasis added.)

It is perfectly legitimate for a well beloved and successful military commander to be called “Father.”

Quite frankly, the name or title “Arthur” is hidden deep within centuries of change and obscurity, but if I’m right, that title links our Celtic Britons to the Middle East, making ties to Israel that much stronger.

Next: Who were the Druids?

The Origins of Arthur – What Little There Is

In all the searching and reading, trying to locate an actual king Arthur, there are really only two original writings that hint at a potential historical Arthur. Both documents can be found in the collection, “Six Old English Chronicles,” published in 1900, compiled and edited by J.A. Giles. I am particularly pointing to “The Works of Gildas” written in the Latin about 536 A.D., and “Nennius’s History of the Britons,” written anywhere between 796 to 994 A.D. For that matter, the editor is not even sure Nennius is the author.

But here is what they say. From Nennius, “ Then it was that the magnanimous Arthur, with all the kings and military force of Britain, fought against the Saxons. And though there were many more noble than himself, yet he was twelve times chosen their commander, and was as often conqueror.”

That’s it!

OK, let’s see what Gildas says. “…that they might not be brought to utter destruction, took arms under the conduct of Ambrosius Aurelianus, a modest man, who of all the Roman nation was then alone in the confusion of this troubled period by chance left alive.”

That’s the closest we get! No wonder everything else is considered legend. All other writings come centuries later. The next historian to mention Arthur is Geoffrey of Monmouth, writing about 1150 A.D.

As I dug through books and maps and articles, one thing became increasingly clear: The legends and stories surrounding Arthur made no sense. With each passing century the stories were expounded upon and enlarged to include a whole array of characters from the ridiculous to the sublime. The themes began to branch out to adultery and treachery. So what was I to make of it all? Was there any truth to the legend?

Just as a common theme emerges from fairy tales the same is true regarding the Arthurian stories.

1. A country of peoples, the Britons, was in peril of being overrun by an enemy – the Saxon invaders.

2. A man was selected to take up arms and lead the Britons in a fight against the Saxons.

3. After many battles, he was successful in defeating the enemy so soundly they quietly stayed in their own borders for twenty years.

Whoever this man was, what he did left a lasting impression that spread from the British Isles to Normandy and Brittany in France. It lasted through the ages and spreads around the world with the English language. Whoever he was, he has been immortalized in prose and poem, in song, theater and film. Even today, he stands as the highest ideal of strength, morality, right and virtue.

T.H. White called him, “The Once and Future King.”

Legend calls him Arthur.

Next: Arthur – what means the name?

The Prophet Jeremiah in Ireland and Other Ridiculous Myths?

I just find it interesting that mainstream archaeologists and historians insist Native American Indians migrated from Asia to the Americas by way of an ancient land bridge which is now the Bearing Straights. However, if you ask the natives, they will tell you, almost every one, that they came by sea. But because there is no written record nor archaeological evidence one way or the other, the ‘experts’ choose to believe their own theories because primitive peoples couldn’t be smart enough to figure out ocean crossings. Yet the Polynesians, a primitive people by some standards, had been traversing thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean in canoes with no compasses for centuries upon centuries, long before we smart Europeans showed up. They managed to get where they wanted to go.

So when I hear the Academics disregard the oral traditions of our own Western Culture, I sit up and take notice.

I am talking of the oral traditions of the British Isles. I came across these traditions as I was doing my research into ancient Great Britain and while talking to people who lived there or served there as Missionaries. One of the legends goes like this…

Jeremiah, a prophet in the Old Testament at the time the Babylonians came conquering Judah, testified of the people’s wickedness. He told them not to trust the Egyptians, but to return and keep God’s commandments. The people were so incensed with him, they stoned him. But he did not die. Instead, he left the Middle East and took with him one of the daughters of king Zedekiah. He ended up in Ireland. There, the princess married a local king and set up a kingdom together.

There are lots of other traditions and stories about the British Isles which the Academics smile down upon with amusement. Such as, did the twelve tribes come here? Are the Tuatha de Dannan, a peoples who arrive in Ireland in the 15th Century BC, members of the Tribe of Dan? Did Jesus spend his youth in Cornwall with his Uncle, Joseph of Aramethea? Were Joseph of Aramethea and Mary, the Mother of Christ exiled from Jerusalem, only to spend the rest of their days in the area around Glastonbury?

See, there are all kinds of interesting oral traditions with no written or archaeological evidence to back them up. But I do find it interesting that Ireland is also referred to as “the land of Erin.” Hmm. Erin and Aaron – spelled differently, but sounding the same.

And capping off all this fertile oral tradition is the grand-daddy of them all – the legend of king Arthur and his noble knights. Today, novelists and movie makers make the story of Arthur and Merlin all magical and superstitious, but I believe this legend is grounded most firmly in Christianity – and – as I hope to show – not Roman Catholic Christianity, but something else. The problem is, conquerors write the histories, and Celtic Middle Eastern Style Christian Britain was conquered soundly by Roman Catholic Christianity – just as Gildas the sage, a Breton ‘monk,’ said they would be.

So, for the next few weeks, or however long it takes, I will try to peel away the Roman and get down to the ancient Britain and see what we will see.

Searching for Israel and Finding the Arthurian Legends

Some years ago, I hired a professional genealogist to do some work on the Beck line of my ancestry. A lot had been done for the Rigbys and Jacobs and Austins, etc., but not much for the Becks. The genealogist came across some interesting finds. First, my great, great, great grandfather, James Beck, joined the Mormon Church while he was working in Liverpool, England. He immigrated to Nauvoo and eventually was in the second wagon train to enter the Salt Lake Valley. His son, from an earlier marriage, John Beck, was in the first. Beck street in Salt Lake City, Utah was named for him. He left behind a handwritten little book that is in the Church History Archives, and he had a patriarchal blessing that I could arrange to get a copy of, since I was a direct descendant.

Meralee Stallings – Me
Ruth Rigby – My Mother
Alvin Beck Rigby – My Grandfather
Mary Elizabeth Beck – My Great Grandmother
Jonas Nuttal Beck – My Great, Great Grandfather
James Beck – My Great, Great, Great Grandfather.

I made the arrangements, and some weeks later got a photocopy of the hand scribed patriarchal blessing which I held on to for some months, meaning to type it up at some later time. And so there it sat.

On day, I was wandering through the Deseret Book store and picked up the title: “Whence Came They?: Israel, Britain and the Restoration,” by Vaughn E. Hansen. I was a little intrigued as I read the back cover and the inside flap, but shrugged my shoulders and put it back on the shelf.

The very next day, I decided it was time to transcribe my great, great, great grandfather James Beck’s patriarchal blessing. I sat down at my 20 MB hard drive computer, pulled up my Word Perfect 5.0 word processing program and began typing away. About one third of the way through I nearly fell off my chair. Here is what I typed.

“God hath preserved thee in the midst of the destruction which have passed through the earth, to be a Savior on Mt. Zion in the last days. & He hath appointed thee to save thy father’s house, even clear back to where they died in the gospel…”

“…where they died in the gospel…” What???? Do you mean I had ancestors, clear back in the time of the ancient apostles, who were faithful members of Christ’s true Church?

James Beck may have joined the Mormon Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Liverpool, England, but he was born and raised in Dumfrieshire, Scotland. The patriarchal blessing also said, “…thou art a lawful heir to the priesthood which was sealed upon the head of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, for this is thy lineage & thy descent:…”

I went back to Deseret Book and bought “Whence Came They?”

It was a book of some interest, but it did not delve deep enough for my taste. It was like whetting my appetite, giving me a tiny taste of Swiss Chocolate from Merkurs. I wanted to indulge myself! I hit the history books. I visited libraries and book stores. I bought books. The internet was still a new thing and not everywhere, but eventually I would find that too.

And what I found was a fascinating culture emerging from the dust of obscurity, a culture so foreign to the Romans they didn’t know what to do with it but try to slaughter it. Yet, the culture would not die. Instead it created one of the greatest legends of Western Civilization:

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table!

Next Week: The traditions of the British Isles.

The Three Little Pigs: God Is No Respecter of Persons

Several weeks ago, as I was writing about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, I made a point about the wicked queen eating the heart of a pig, instead of the heart of Snow White. Making the pig a symbol of all things gentile, un-kosher and non-Isrealite, or unclean, started me thinking about – The Three Little Pigs. I had just recently viewed all the Shelly Duval Faerie Tale Theater videos. Most I liked and some I thought silly. However, I did like “The Three Little Pigs” with Billy Crystal. He was delightful as the confident, cheerful youngest pig of three pig siblings. If you don’t remember the story, it’s very simple. It goes like this.

Once upon a time, there were three pigs who set off from home to make their fortune in the world. As they traveled along, a man came by with a wheelbarrow of straw. The eldest pig thought the straw would make a great house. The stuff was cheap and it wouldn’t take long to build the thing. He buys the straw and off he goes to make his home.

The next two pigs continue on their way. Along comes a man with a cart full of sticks. The second eldest pig thinks the sticks are better than the straw and will make sturdier house. It’s a bit more expensive, but that’s OK. He buys the sticks and goes off to make his house.

The youngest pig had a big dream. He wanted a house of brick. He knew it would be expensive and take a while to build, but he also knew it would be sturdy and keep him safe and snug and warm. Finally, he came to a brick maker. It took a while to build his house, but when it was done, it was a beauty.

In that same country was a big, bad wolf. And he was hungry. He smelled out the first pig who lived in the hut of straw. We all know the little taunt wolf yelled out to his victims. “Little Pig, little pig, let me come in!” “Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin!” “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in!” And the wolf huffed and puffed and blew in the house of straw. He does the same to the house of sticks.

OK, let’s just go that far. First of all we have our number three, that recurring number that means, cleansing. Of the three pigs, it’s the youngest that holds out for a brick house. Quite frankly, the two older pigs think the younger pig is being foolish for spending so much time and money on a house. After all, the house of straw and the house of stick will keep the rain off just fine, thank you very much.

We’ve already talked about the foolish youth in the Twelve Dancing Princesses. And in the Book of Mormon, in Lehi’s dream after he partook of the white fruit that made him feel so wonderful, he saw the great and spacious building with boatloads of people mocking all those who had partaken of the fruit. In the world today, those who choose to be followers of Christ and keep his “binding, restricting” commandments, are considered foolish.

I’d like to think this story of The Three Little Pigs goes right back to the parable of the foolish man and the wise man.

Matt. 7: 24-25
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

Luke 6: 48
48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.

But in our story, the hero is a pig. He’s unclean. And that takes me to the New Testament, the Book of Acts, Chapter Ten. Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, a gentile, and considered unclean by the Jews, has learned of Jesus Christ and believes in him, but is concerned because he is not a Jew. An angel comes to him and instructs him to find Peter, the chief Apostle of Christ who is residing at the moment in Jaffa, at the house of Simon, the Tanner. So, Cornelius sends messengers to find Peter.

9 ¶ On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:
10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:
12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.
14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

Peter marvels over the love of God, that his salvation is extended unto all who will believe on Christ and keep His commandments. Cornelius and all those with him are baptized and the Gospel of Jesus Christ literally goes to all the world. Wherever a ship can take a man, that is where the Apostles traveled to.

And who is the wolf. I hope you can see the obvious. It’s Satan, of course, who, with his wiles (wily wolf) will trick mankind into taking the easy way out, be indolent and self gratifying. And what does the wolf want to do? He wants to devour the pig. What does Satan want to do? He wants to devour mankind and destroy the work of God.

Now, in our modern sensibilities, since we have handed these stories over to children, we have the first two pigs managing to run away and join their younger brother in his house of bricks. But the older versions of the story are not so nice. Once the straw house and the stick house are blown down, the wolf is free to chase after the pigs and eat them up. Which he does.

When he comes to the youngest pig in his house of bricks, he huffs and he puffs, but he cannot manage to blow down this well founded, solid house. So the wolf tries to get in through the chimney, but ends up as stew for his efforts. And the youngest pig lives happily ever after in his solid house.

This is not only a valuable story about hard work and high aspirations, it’s a story about salvation. It’s a story that tells you it doesn’t matter what race, color, creed or nationality you are, you are a child of God, and anyone, - anyone – who enters into a covenant with God, keeps his commandments, builds their life on the Rock and foundation of Jesus Christ – can be saved in the Celestial Kingdom of heaven and enjoy the priesthood and privileges found there.

Remember those three degrees of glory? I think we can add to them.

Telestial – Stars – Straw
Terrestrial – Moon – Sticks
Celestial – Sun – Bricks

So, whether of Israel, or not, whether pig or wicked queen, sleeping beauty, or young foolish Hero, the atonement of Jesus Christ covers us all, everyone, if we but learn to repent, call on His name, keep His commandments and do His works.

Well, that about wraps it up for fairy tales. At least for now.

Next Week; The most important legends in English traditions - Arthur

Western Civilizations Sacred Stories - Fairy Tales: Summary

Just shortly after I started this blog, while I was writing about Snow White, I pulled out my copy of “The DaVinci Code” and popped it into the player. I watched and scrutinized it with my skeptic mind as the story made it’s way through clues and puzzles and dangerous moments. The story finally wraps up. The prime character, Doctor Robert Langdon, makes his way to the glass pyramid at the Louvre, having discovered for himself the final resting place of the Lady Magdalene. The camera sweeps over the image of the sarcophagus, the stone image on the lid looking like...

I’m sorry, I laughed out loud! There it was! Sleeping Beauty! “There she sleeps beneath the starry skies.” Oh my goodness, the whole thing, the premise for this story was -- a fairy tale. A woman forced to flee into the wilderness. The woman pained to be delivered of a child. The true bride, awaiting her handsome prince to come and rescue her from obscurity. The whole book and movie was nothing but a complicated, glorified fairy tale. Go! Watch it! See for yourself. All the elements of the fairy tale are there retold in a modern setting with a conspiracy twist.

But only men conspire. God does not. He simply reveals His truth to those who will listen with humble hearts. And His truth isn’t earth shattering. It’s heart breaking. God’s people have broken hearts and contrite spirits.

I really do like fairy tales. I like authors who take fairy tales and write novels, like Robin McKinnely’s “Beauty” or Shannon Hale’s “The Goose Girl.” And I love the beautiful picture books, like “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” as told by Marianna Mayer and Illustrated by K.Y. Craft. They all evoke a something in me - a longing and a yearning. Sometimes I think I’m yearning for my own mortal prince. I think what I’m really yearning for is - home.

This is the promise of our fairy tales, of The Book of Revelation and it’s themes of redemption and restoration. We all are on a sojourn through this sea of mortality. We want to go home to that heavenly realm of absolute peace and love and rest.

I believe that is why these stories have endured through the dark ages, the age of enlightenment and reason, the industrial revolution and the information age. They are indeed sacred stories. The divine never dies.

We gave these stories over to our little children and perhaps that will be our salvation. Children still believe, they have faith, they play dress up and slay dragons. They are keeping these sacred stories safe for us. I think that’s the right place for them - for now. After all...

“Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away.

Next week: One more fairy tale.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses: Restoration and the Wedding Supper of the Lord. Part 3

At the end of our story, “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” our young Hero marries the youngest daughter of the realm and there is great celebrating throughout the kingdom. And, of course, they lived happily ever after! Thus ends most of our Fairy Tales: Rapunzel, The Goose Girl, The Frog Prince, Beauty and the Beast, as well as all the other stories I have mentioned previously.

And thus ends the Book of Revelation as well. Chapter 19, verses 7- 9, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

Well, I don’t know about you, but that’s a party I would like to be invited to. I find it interesting that the Lord used weddings as the basis for two of his parables and both are in Matthew: The Marriage of the King’s Son, where people were invited, but didn’t come, and The Ten Virgins where only half were prepared to greet the Bridegroom. I also find it interesting that Christ’s first recorded miracle took place at a wedding supper.

I think God is very serious about all this marriage stuff. After all, marriage is a turning point in people’s lives. It defines you. It says you belong to someone. Our Savior wants us to belong to him, and when we do, some very remarkable things happen. Satan shall be bound a thousand years. When the end comes, the saints who were valiant and faithful unto the end enter into that Celestial Glory prepared for them. Is not this, “happily ever after?”

Oh, that our young people could know that “happily ever after” is not for mortality. Mortality is a testing ground, the place of tears, struggle, trial and woe. When Christ wipes away all tears, it is in that higher realm and woe is swallowed up in the salvation of our God. Happily ever after is for the here-after.

“The Twelve Dancing Princesses” clearly foretells the triumph of Christ over the world of sin and darkness. He breaks all spells and enchantments, but only when His people choose to follow him, keep the commandments and give their icy hearts over to Him.

In our story there were twelve princesses in all. What will become of the other eleven? Well, if you really think about it, the Princesses are the House of Israel. The Book of Revelation is all about the restoration of all the Tribes of Israel, not just one. So that means, eventually, all the princesses will become the bride of the Young Hero. This is what the Book of Revelation is all about, redemption and restoration, the restoration of Israel, the keeping of promises to The Fathers; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And now we know that in order to be called to the marriage of the Lamb, we need to enter into His Kingdom, a kingdom far, far away, and once upon a time. We must recognize the true bride, the only true Church, and then do all in our power to be obedient to the laws and ordinances of that kingdom and church, sustain it ans support it, so that we might be called to the marriage supper and join in the celebration. For God has said, “man is that he might have joy (2 Nephi 2:25)!”

And then, you may dance and dance and dance - and your dancing slippers will never wear out.

Next Week: A Summary of Western Civilizations Sacred Stories - Fairy Tales.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses: Restoration and the Wedding Supper of the Lord. Part 2

I’m sorry for the delay. First it was the holidays, and then I caught a really bad cold. I’m much better now, so let’s get back to our story.

Our Hero follows the Twelve Princesses into an underground realm of mystery. To his surprise, they descend and pass through a series of forests. First they pass through a forest with leaves that sparkle and glitter like the stars. Next, they pass a forest with leaves silver as the moon. Finally, they pass through a forest with leaves that are golden, like the sun.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it.

Always, our hero is behind the youngest of the daughters, and her he watches most. Once through the forest, they come to a dark lake. At the shore is a small peer where wait twelve boats. Each princess gets in a boat and is ferried across the lake to a great palace on an island in the middle of the lake. This is where they go night after night, dancing at a ball with young men who seem to be in a trance, their hearts as cold as ice. It turns out these young men, these princes, are the very young men who had followed the princesses into this dark realm in an effort to solve the mystery, and have been trapped there.

The young Hero learns all this, wearing his cloak of invisibility. He watches the princesses and when dawn nears, he follows them back the way they came. Armed with truth, he is now ready to mount a rescue.

Europe was not the only area of the world which fell into a dark age. It was almost universal around the globe. In reading accounts of pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas, it’s agreed by some scholars that the golden era was between the First and Third Centuries A.D. and then everything sank into obscurity and darkness shortly after that. It seemed to be true everywhere. Mohammad rose up with light in a country plagued with idol worship in the 5th century. Asia’s history is shrouded in war and obscurity. Poverty of knowledge seemed to be everywhere. It was like the whole world fell asleep. And the place of sleep is where the Princesses go. In Jungian Psychology dream analysis, waters represent the subconscious, the place of dreams and sleep. Instead of one sleeping beauty, we have twelve. It isn’t just the ten tribes of Israel that are lost. All are lost, shrouded in ignorance and sleep.

Knowing the truth, on the last night of this three day trial, the Hero allows the princesses, fully visible now, to lead him into the underground realm. There he dances with each princess in turn, but his attention is mostly on the youngest, who seems to be equally interested in him. After the dancing, there is a feast. He is offered a special drink - one that will entrance him like all the other young men in the dark realm. As he is about to put it to his lips, the youngest princess stops him and dashes the goblet from his lips. This one act breaks the horrible spell that had not only shrouded the princesses, but all the young men who had followed them into this realm.

Everyone woke up. They came to their senses. The underground realm is broken and the palace begins to fall apart. With haste, they get out of the palace, out of the dark realm and up into the light.

As a reward for solving the mystery, the Hero is allowed to select one of the princesses as his bride. Surprisingly, he selects the youngest.

In part one, we likened the Twelve Dancing Princesses to the Twelve Tribes of Israel. I said this was a story of restoration and redemption - and it is. It is all about the restoration of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

Everything in the Book of Revelation is about restoration and redemption, bringing the woman out of obscurity - and a marriage, the wedding supper of the Lord. In fact the restoration of Israel is one of the greatest of the signs leading to the Second Coming of the Lord. Yet, who is looking for the return of Israel? I’ll tell you who, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Doctrine & Covenants is full of information about the restoration of Israel and her Twelve Tribes. In fact, our patriarchal blessings give us first thing, revelation about our lineage. The vast majority of the early membership of the Church were told they were of the house and lineage of Ephraim. Of all the tribes of Israel, who’s the youngest?

The two sons of Joseph of Egypt were named Manassah and Ephraim, Ephraim being the younger of the two, yet when Jacob blessed the boys, he gave the birthright blessing to the younger Ephraim. When the twelve tribes were brought out of Egypt, there were actually thirteen tribes. Twelve of these tribes were given land grants, while the tribe of Levi was given priesthood and administrative responsibilities among the rest of the tribes. Ephraim and Manassah had equal standing as a tribe with all the other tribes of Israel. So the tribe of Ephraim is the youngest - and - according to the doctrine and history of the Church, the first to be gathered into the restored gospel.

The Hero marries the youngest princess.

Next Week: Part 3 - The Wedding Supper of the Lord.