Lugh And The Son of Artio: A Retelling Of The Myth of Lancelot
A hypothetical Gaelic version of Lancelot The Knight Of The Cart in the style of James MacPherson
If we accept a few different theories about the myth of King Arthur: One, that the name Arthur is derived from the Gallo-Roman bear goddess Artio, two, that Lancelot is a euhemerized version of the Welsh god Llew, and three that the Norman authors of the romances we know today did take the basic plot-lines from traditional Breton legends…
Then we can assume that there was an original Celtic myth about the rivalry between the Celtic storm god Lug and a bear hero perhaps a Celtic version of the Norse shapeshifter Bodvar Bjarki over a goddess who perhaps symbolizes the moon as Guinevere means ‘white phantom’.
The fact that there is no surviving Gaelic analogue for this story is perhaps evidence for these theories being untrue, or perhaps such a myth has just been lost over the centuries.
This short piece is my ‘what if’ such a myth had survived long enough for 18th century folklorist, and poet James MacPherson to have found it and reworked it. I’ve written in his style before and doing it again was a lot of fun. Enjoy.
In days gone by when the forests of bonnie Caledonia were filled with brown dear and silver clad warriors hunted them, in the…
