Creirwy () is a figure in the ''
Mabinogion
The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, create ...
'' and the ''
Hanes Taliesin
''The Hanes Taliesin'' (''Historia Taliesin, The Tale of Taliesin'') is a legendary account of the life of the poet Taliesin recorded in the mid-16th century by Elis Gruffydd. The tale was also recorded in a slightly different version by John Jo ...
'' (the story of
Taliesin
Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the '' Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts ...
's life), daughter of the enchantress
Ceridwen
Ceridwen or Cerridwen ( ''Ke-RID-wen'') was an enchantress in Welsh medieval legend. She was the mother of a hideous son, Afagddu, and a beautiful daughter, Creirwy. Her husband was Tegid Foel and they lived near Bala Lake () in north Wales. Med ...
and
Tegid Foel Tegid Foel is the husband of Ceridwen in Welsh mythology. His name rendered into English would be "Tacitus the Bald". In folklore, Tegid Foel is associated with Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake) in Gwynedd and may have been the tutelary deity of that lake.
...
("Tacitus the Bald"). The
Welsh Triads
The Welsh Triads ( cy, Trioedd Ynys Prydein, "Triads of the Island of Britain") are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a ...
name her one of the three most beautiful maids of the Isle of Britain. Born in
Penllyn in
Powys
Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...
, Wales, Creirwy (also known as ''Llywy'') has a dark, hideous brother named
Morfran
Morfran (Middle Welsh: ''Moruran'' "cormorant"; literally "sea crow", from ''môr'', "sea", and ''brân'', "crow", from Common Brittonic *''mori-brannos'', as in French ''cormoran'' < L ''corvus marinus'')
and a foster brother,
Gwion Bach
Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the '' Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to have sung at the courts ...
(who would become the bard Taliesin). She does not appear in the stories about
Afagddu
Morfran (Middle Welsh: ''Moruran'' "cormorant"; literally "sea crow", from ''môr'', "sea", and ''brân'', "crow", from Common Brittonic *''mori-brannos'', as in French ''cormoran'' < L ''corvus marinus'')
and Taliesin.
Interpretation as a goddess
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
researcher
Edward Davies deemed Creirwy "the
Proserpine of the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
Druid
A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...
s"—also
comparing her mother Ceridwen to
Ceres
Ceres most commonly refers to:
* Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid
* Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture
Ceres may also refer to:
Places
Brazil
* Ceres, Goiás, Brazil
* Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...
of Roman myth.
[''The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids''page 205]
/ref> Mythographer Jacob Bryant
Jacob Bryant (1715–1804) was an English scholar and mythographer, who has been described as "the outstanding figure among the mythagogues who flourished in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries."
Life
Bryant was born at Plymout ...
theorized that Creirwy and Ceridwen were essentially "the same mystical personage."mundane egg
The world egg, cosmic egg or mundane egg is a mythological motif found in the cosmogonies of many cultures that is present in Proto-Indo-European culture and other cultures and civilizations. Typically, the world egg is a beginning of some sort, ...
", "adder stone
An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones, which usually consist of flint, have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egypt. Commonly, they are found in Northern Germ ...
") from the Welsh elements "a token, jewel, sacred object, relic, talisman, treasure, richly decorated article, object of admiration or love, darling, safeguard, strength, hand-bell, church-bell" and "egg". For the ancient Druids, the mundane egg allegedly symbolized chaos, the beginning of all things, and upon it oaths were administered.
Saint Creirwy
This was also the name of a 6th-century Breton saint from Wales, daughter of Saint Gwen the Triple-Breasted and sister of the great regional saint Winwaloe
Saint Winwaloe ( br, Gwenole; french: Guénolé; la, Winwallus or ; – 3 March 532) was the founder and first abbot of Landévennec Abbey (literally " Lann of Venec"), also known as the Monastery of Winwaloe. It was just south of Brest in Bri ...
. According to hagiographies
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
of Winwaloe, Saint Creirwy ( la, Creirvia; br, Klervi) as a young girl had one or both eyes gouged out by a wild goose
A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera ''Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and '' Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the ...
, but Winwaloe retrieved the eyeball(s) from the gander's belly and returned it/them to his little sister's orbit(s), and Creirwy's eyesight was miraculously restored. Thus, she is allegedly a patron saint of the blind. The story is memorialized in a 16th-century statue in Keravézan, Saint-Frégant; known as ''la fontaine de Saint Guénolé'', it depicts Winwaloe (Guénolé) holding the goose and the eyeball, with little Creirwy at his feet.
However, the legend is dismissed by Baring-Gould and Fisher, who say it originated with an expression that "Creirwe" used; supposedly she would often say she "owed her eye to Winwaloe", but in reference to a much more ordinary childhood event, in which her brother stepped in and protected her when a wild goose flew at Creirwy and almost pecked out her eye.[Anna of the blog ''Early Western Saints'']
"St Winwaloe"
Retrieved 1 June 2012.
References
Literature
* Rachel Bromwich
Rachel Bromwich (30 July 1915 – 15 December 2010) born Rachel Sheldon Amos, was a British scholar. Her focus was on medieval Welsh literature, and she taught Celtic Languages and Literature in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at ...
: ''Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain.'' University Of Wales Press 2006, .
''Dictionary of Celtic religion and culture''
Bernhard Maier
Bernhard Maier (born 1963 in Oberkirch (Baden), Oberkirch, Baden) is a German professor of religious studies, who publishes mainly on Celtic studies, Celtic culture and religion.
Maier studied comparative religion, comparative linguistics, Celtic ...
, Boydell & Brewer, 1997, .
{{authority control
Medieval Breton saints
Welsh goddesses
Mabinogion
Female saints of medieval Wales