The Celts

In the course of my unpacking I discovered the box with Stephen Lawhead books! Before loading the box into my car I withdrew the three volumes of the Song of Albion series and began re-reading The Paradise War immediately. Following upon my earlier quotes from Hood I offer you some from TPW in the same vein.

Each night Gwenllian wove the shimmering magic of the harp with her skilled ifngers, and sang the ageless songs of Albion: of Llyr and his sorry children, of inconstand Blodeuedd and her vile treachery, of Pwyll and his beloved Riannon, of fair Arianrhod, and mysterious Mathonwy, and Bran the Blessed, and Manawyddan, and Gwydion, and Pryderi, and Dylan, Epona, Don...and all the rest.

I thought I remembered these names from before. I believe that we actually heard the story of Pwyll and Riannon somewhere in the Pendragon Cycle, and perhaps one or two of the others. Any time Lawhead puts one of these tales into his text in its entirety it is a great read. One that I thought I recognized from the Hood list came back when I read a bit further:

"Hear then the tale of Nudd, Prince of Uffern." So saying, Tegid began. "In elder days, when the dew of creation was still fresh on the earth, twin sons were born to Beli, Great of Renown. The first was Nudd, and his brother was Ludd. And this is the way of it:

That whole "when the dew of creation..." is one of my favourite opening lines. I think I even used a variant in a mythological story that I wrote. Yep, I found it. Well now I have to get back to reading and sleeping. Today (Wednesday) I have no work at bigg's, so I'll hopefully buy a mattress and get much more stuff unpacked! :-)

~Matt