Anglesey

[Boreades]

The allusion to a 'tanned' Welsh saint is somewhat puzzling unless it relates to tannim, loosely translated as 'teachings' but more generally means 'dragons'.

This is an excellent connection. The pre-Christian world of dragons would most likely have more than one meaning. As the Romans complained, the Celts liked talking in riddles.

Quoting a few excerpts from the (as yet) unpublished book "Here Be Dragons!" by K.W.MacDonald...

Dragon-lore can be divided into two distinct categories - literal and metaphoric, or temporal and esoteric. The literal knowledge, of dragons as fire-breathing monsters for metal refining, is quite different from the place of dragons in esoteric knowledge.

The Teachers - Tannaim
(wot Hattie said)

There are curious resonances with two other names and groups. One is well-known from Irish legend – the Tuatha De Danaan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatha_D%C3%A9_Danann

Similarly, Tantra comes from the Sanskrit

तन्त्र often simply means "treatise" or "exposition". Literally it can be said to mean "loom, warp, weave"; hence "principle, continuum, system, doctrine, theory", from the verbal root tan "stretch, extend, expand", and the suffix tra "instrument".
The 10th-century Tantric scholar Rāmakaṇṭha, who belonged to the dualist school Śaiva Siddhānta, gives another definition:
A tantra is a divinely revealed body of teachings, explaining what is necessary and what is a hindrance in the practice of the worship of God; and also describing the specialized initiation and purification ceremonies that are the necessary prerequisites of Tantric practice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantra

In Yoga, Kundalini is the primal energy within, sometimes called the serpent power. Kundalini Awakening is the deliberate act through meditation and yogic practice of releasing this power in a controlled and positively-useful manner.

This, in esoteric dragon-lore, is called taming the serpent.

More : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini

In the western world’s partial and dumbed-down understanding of Yoga, Tantra has become rather debased as Tantric sex titillates the media classes (see Sting). Fundamental Christians especially take a dim view of such blatantly pagan activities. Like Catholic priests, or Romanised Christian missionaries, they might better be regarded as suppressing the dragon within. Either externally by hostile action, or internally, by self-denial.

[Boreades]

The ortho-types aren't sure where the Danaan part of "Tuatha De Danaan" comes from. "Tuatha De" is recognised as "people of". Danaan can mean teachers just as well as the supposed superior beings or gods.

[hvered]

Interestingly, St Seiriol's island was of navigational significance well into the modern era being the site of a telegraph station that was part of an extremely efficient signalling network. And there is still a lighthouse, one of five off the Anglesey coast (two are disused I think).

There is some debate as to whether St Seiriol went to Penmon first or Puffin Island, where he set up as a hermit. The latter acquired different names at various times, one of which was Mouse Island. The story goes that

"There is a small island almost adjoining Anglesey, which is inhabited by hermits, living by manual labour and serving God. It is remarkable that when, by the influence of human passions, any discord arises among them, all their provisions are devoured and infected by a species of small mice, with which the island abounds, but when the discord ceases they are no longer molested."

This explanation, supplied by a twelfth-century historian, is appropriately moralistic and entirely baffling since there are three more 'Mouse islands' forming a chain off the coast -- West Mouse, Middle Mouse and East Mouse -- though 'island' is in fact rather generous in these cases. Mouse seems apt being small but mice have long tails so perhaps these tiny offshore islands were once connected by a 'tail' to Anglesey, which would tie in with the earlier 'Rat Island' phenomenon we discussed [but they can't all be causewayed islands, can they?].

Trwyn Du lighthouse is between Penmon and Puffin Island/Ynys Seiriol, at the northern end of the Menai Straits



West Mouse has a familiar-sounding story attached.

"The Welsh name Maen y Bugail translates into English as The Shepherd's Stone. This comes from a folklore tale in which a shepherd who was looking for his sheep was annoyed by a stone in his shoe. He took the stone out and threw it into the sea, the island arising at the place in which it landed." [Try substituting shepherd with giant or the devil.]

Middle Mouse, which is also called Patrick's Island because he was supposed to have been shipwrecked there, is the northernmost point of Wales. It's about half a mile from the shore and a favoured spot for cormorants.

Apparently 'mouse' also means [obsolete] in nautical circles 'tying the mouth of a hook to prevent it opening or being straightened out' which may relate to a mouse's not very straight tail.

[Mick Harper]

Both The History of Britain Revealed and The Distribution of Deserts were first provisionally penned while the local Druid was looking out at Puffin Island so clearly there is something to the folklore. Note the relationship between rat and mouse which is the subject of some speculation on the other site.

[Boreades]

Re.

Holyhead Island, the westernmost point of the Anglesey 'diamond', where Cybi had founded a monastery

Cybi/Gybi/Kybi had clearly got around a bit. Like the young upper class of Victorian society, doing the European tour was the thing to do.

(he) was the son of Salomon, a 'warrior prince', generally thought to have been a King of Cornwall. In the 'Bonedd y Saint', his father's name is given the Welsh form, Selyf. He was raised as a Christian and, in early life, went on a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem. He became a priest and was consecrated as a bishop, before he arrived home to find that his father was dead and he was King of Cornwall. Cybi politely declined the throne and, instead, travelled through his kingdom, preaching to the people and building churches ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybi

For some reason I'm amused by "politely declined the throne". What was wrong with being King of Cornwall? Too much like hard work after gadding around Europe?

Off Anglesey, King Maelgwn Gwynedd gave him the old Roman fort at Holyhead (subsequently known, in Welsh, as Caer Gybi, "Cybi's Fort") on Holy Island (thence called Ynys Gybi, "Cybi's Island"). He founded a large and important monastery there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybi

Wiki doesn't offer any direct explanation was to why Maelgwn Gwynedd was on such friendly terms with Cybi. There might have been family connections, but in any case...

Maelgwn was a generous supporter of Christianity, funding the foundation of churches throughout Wales and even far beyond the bounds of his own kingdom.

,,, they were in the same business.

Maelgwn Gwynedd was buried on Ynys Seiriol (Puffin Island). But why Caer Gybi? Caer Gybi was a small fortlet in Roman Wales.

The fort is one of Europe's only three-walled Roman forts. The fourth side fronted the sea and was probably the site of a quay.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caer_Gybi_%28fort%29

So, not just a monastery, a fortified trade hub as well, in an excellent position.

[Mick Harper]

For some reason I'm amused by "politely declined the throne". What was wrong with being King of Cornwall? Too much like hard work after gadding around Europe?

One of the themes of TME, and it also occurs in THOBR, is that the Megalithics thought of themselves as superior to local lay authorities. This also a theme in Medieval times (say Becket vs Henry II or popes vs emperors) when it is not always possible to say whether it is better to belong to a multinational organisation with diffused power or a potentate with direct but localised power.

[Boreades]

Maelgwn Gwynedd has a special mention in De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae by the 6th-century British cleric St Gildas.

Part II is a condemnation of five kings for their various sins, including both obscure figures and relatively well-documented ones such as Maelgwn Gwynedd....Maelgwn (Maglocune), King of Gwynedd, receives the most sweeping condemnation and is described almost as a high king over the other kings (the power-giving dragon of the Apocalypse). The Isle of Anglesey was the base of power of the kings of Gwynedd, so describing Maelgwn as the 'dragon of the island' is appropriate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Excidi ... Britanniae

More dragons!

[Boreades]

The timing of Seirol amd Cybi in history is interesting.

This ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelgwn_Gwynedd ) says that Maelgwn Gwynedd died c. 547. So, well before the series of Welsh Synods that started to consolidated power and squeezed out the free-thinkers.

Synod of Brefi 560AD - apparently called in order to condemn the heretical teachings of Pelagius. What was all the fuss about? Pelagius upset the applecart with a doctrine of free will. Even worse, he apparently denied Augustine's theory of original sin. Which is "the Christian doctrine of humanity's state of sin resulting from the fall of man, stemming from Adam's rebellion in Eden"

Pelagianism is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special Divine aid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagianism

Synod of Victory (569AD) - Dealing with the threat to business presented by Pelagius appears to have been singularly important, as the Synod of Victory appears to only have one thing on the agenda: condemn the heresy of Pelagianism.

But it wasn't all going one way.

At the convention of Druim Cett in 575, St. Columcille (also called St. Columba or Colum Cille or Colmcille) interceded to stop the banishment of the poets. The title “poet” in this case may refer to those who maintained the oral histories of the druids.

http://ns2.rsok.com/columcille_and_druids.html

In “A Brief History of the Druids” by Peter Berresford Ellis:

With the arrival of Christianity, the Druids began to merge totally with the new culture, some even becoming priests of the new religion and continuing as an intellectual class in much the same way as their forefathers had done for over a thousand years previously.

Druids that converted were acceptable, others were not.

But all this was before Augustine brought the Roman version of Christianity to Canterbury in 590 AD.

[Mick Harper]

Pelagius was a much more important character than historians have ever recognised. However my own interest in him came via a work of fiction so I will deal with it in the Books thread.

[Boreades]

The only thing of interest about St Seiriol is that he used to meet his friend St Cybi at a half-way point between Penmon and Holy or Holyhead Island..

True, but except that Seirol is also reported as

a son of King Owain Danwyn of Rhos.

A stray notion has wandered passed my synaptic gaps. Perhaps it's an emphasis we are not making forceably enough. Which is : - as a rule of thumb, to be a Celtic Saint, you had to have been born into a Celtic Royal Family. Rising through the ranks of Celtic Christianity was exceptional and rare. People had to be ruled in temporal as well as spiritual matters, but to make sure there was minimal conflict between the two, the same families would provide the rulers of both temporal and spiritual matters.

Where was the dividing line?

A tricky question, but perhaps as Father Ted famously remarked: "Ah that would be an ecumenical matter."