A Meditation on Alban Elfed

Alban Elfed – the autumnal equinox – is important to me of course.  Though I don’t follow the modern tradition of identifying Mabon with the equinox per se – nevertheless with Alban Elfed approaching, and with it Calan Gaeaf not long after, my thoughts turn to Mabon the huntsman, not least because with the turning of the year and the slow end of summer it’s natural to seek out this god and his eternal youth, and his place between worlds.

I first came on Mabon (intellectually) early on, in my exploration of what there was of the ancient tales of my homeland. Mabon ap Modron figures of course in the 12^th Century tale Kilhwch and Olwen, found in its most complete form in the Red Book of Hergest and preserved for us as one of the twelve (sometimes thirteen)  romances included with the Mabinogi.

Read spiritually, Kilhwch and Olwen isn’t one tale, but three (apt!)  interwoven in interesting ways.  But one of the most interesting is the dual path to Mabon ap Modron.

The first, but less obvious path is through Yspaddaden Penkawr’s impossible tasks – with each demand, and with each of Kilhwch’s boasts, we get step by step closer to Mabon – even once his name is invoked, the subsequent demands go from items or assistants directly needed by Mabon in his capture of Twrch Trwyth to demands purely ceremonial.

But despite the complexity and the array of men and hounds and horses and tools needed to finally take the comb/bristles and shears/jaw and razor/tusk from Twrch Trwyth’s head, it turns out they are a distraction.

There are hints of meaning here as well, of course, both in the wordplay of the sequence of challenges and boasts as Yspaddaden and Kilhwch spar (which unfortunately my inadequate Welsh can’t unravel) and in the events of the quest to fulfil the tasks – with intriguing references to places and events with spiritual significance of their own.

But ultimately, the key here is not the tasks (and it could be argued that many of the details form a separate story in themselves).  In this, the tale is almost Zen in its lesson because the true task isn’t in all these details at all: it’s finding Mabon himself.

Mabon, as we have learned earlier in the tale, was stolen from his mother Modron (thought to be the Mother, though this isn’t alluded to in the story) at a mere 3 days old – and has never been heard from since, though somehow he’s known to Yspaddaden as the greatest of all hunters. But he is the key to Kilhwych’s quest to gain Olwen, and at the advice of Arthur the companions decide to seek Mabon first and foremost.  Thus we come to the second, and more obvious path: the path of animals.

First, the questing Kilhwch and his companions seek out the Blackbird of Cilgwri, but the Blackbird can’t help them despite his great age – instead he takes them to the Stag of Rhedynfre who, being the Blackbird’s elder, will surely know. But the Stag too is too young, and leads them on to their next guide: the Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd.  And still the Owl, despite his age and wisdom, doesn’t know the whereabouts of Mabon – he leads them one step further along the path to enquire of his own senior: the Eagle of Gwern Abwy. The Eagle leads them on again to the eldest of all, the Salmon of Llyn Llyw.

At last the Salmon knows where they might find a man who answers to the description – though he doesn’t know the man’s name. The Salmon, who is so ancient and large that two grown men can ride on his shoulders, carries them up the river and back to Caer Loyw (Gloucester today) – where in fact they began their quest to free Mabon ap Modron in the first place.

Look at this progression:

·         The Blackbird of Cilgwri, who doesn’t know despite being so old an anvil has been pecked to nothing, but leads them to an elder beast:

·         The Stag of Rhedynfre, who also doesn’t know despite being so old an oak has grown from a sapling to a great age and worn away to a stump, but leads them to an elder beast:

·         The Owl of Cawlwyd – and note the place of the Owl as sacred to Gwyn ap Nudd, as well as Owl’s place at the center of the progression – but the Owl leads them to an elder beast:

·         The Eagle of Gwern Abwy – prominent in Taliesin’s poems of Ceridwen, and linked forever with Gwgon Gwron of Caer Gwrie, who was said to be of the race of eagles and the dragon of the city of bards – and yet even the Eagle doesn’t know, and leads them further to:

·         The Salmon of Llyn Llyw – the most powerful symbol of wisdom and enlightenment.

 

And it can be no coincidence the progression brings us full circle, from Caer Loyw to far-flung sacred places and back again (for an interesting review of the locales in this tale, check out John Toffee’s analysis here)

Mabon is a hunter – and in this tale, above all, only he has the power to capture the Black Boar. But we also know that he is imprisoned, and has been for as long as Salmon can recall, moreover that he has been imprisoned since three days after his birth to the Mother, Modron.

And it may be that the other side of his lineage is known as well – in other tales we see a character named Mabon ap Melld, where Melld is lightning – perhaps a cognate for an epithet applied to the Gallic god Loucetios.

And finally, there is the Gallic and north Brythonic god Maponos, equated with Apollo by the Romans, and consequently positioned as a youth, with connections to harvest, to wine, and – again – to hunting. 

 

And of course, Apollo is linked strongly in the Roman (and Greek) traditions to prophesy as well.

 

Here we have a god tied to both the sky (Melld/Mellt) and the earth (through Modron – who is also possibly the daughter of Afallach, with intriguing possible links here to the apple of wisdom).  

 

Here we have a god who is tied to a cycle, and to a progression of animals  

 

Here we have a god imprisoned, one of the three names mentioned in Triad 52 alongside Llyr Lledyeith and Gwair ap Geirioedd (and in the alternate triad given by Mabon himself in Kilhwch and Olwen of course: Llud Llaw Ereint, and Greid ap Eri) as one of the Three Exalted Prisoners of Britain.

 

This place of Mabon as a prisoner, his associations with transcendence, and the resonance between prison/abduction and the edge between things has always intrigued me.

 

From my researches, it seems to me that Mabon must surely be linked to the sun (and not just through his connection to Maponos and Apollo) and to the power that comes from standing between worlds as the sun does.

 

So, at this time of year, when the sun hangs half-way between Summer and Winter, between Light and Dark, I think of the god Mapon with his feet on either side of the divide.

 

I take this time for meditation and contemplation, and follow a path of my own that leads from the twin hawthorn sprigs that bloomed on the grave of Goleuddydd, Kilhwch’s mother, and from there on the shoulders of the wisest of animals to the cell of Mabon, who surely is a spark of the Awen I seek.