Extinct Animals that the Britons Saw

while reading welsh mythology you might encounter a couple of unexpected animals although many species have gone extinct throughout the history of britain only few seem to have made a lasting impact on welsh mythology today i'm going to talk about three species in particular the bear the boar and the wolf and the parts they played in the mythologies of whales the bear plays the smallest part no doubt owing to the fact they're probably quite rare in britain and they most likely went extinct between 425 and 594 a.d germanic languages including old english appear to have avoided referring to the bear directly possibly due to superstition instead calling it the brown one this can also be seen in proto-slavic and modern russian where bears are referred to as honey eaters welsh doesn't do this the word for bear earth just means bear and can be found with certainty in one place den earth bears fortress the historian gildas stated that kanlasgarch king of ross drove a chariot belonging to a bearish den likely referring to den earth which today is only preserved in a few road names in san disto and ross another possible impact of the bear is in the name of the legendary king arthur a popular explanation for this name is that it derives from the latin artorius which may be a latinized form of the celtic patronum rigos son of the bear king davon while moilmid was according to joffrey of monmouth the king of cornwall in 450 bc he was apparently a lawmaker and an excellent measurer recording the island of britain to be 900 miles long and 500 miles wide he also wasn't real regardless he supposedly founded the city of bristol as cair aldor named after the river flowing through it other nant ebay the opening of the stream of the bowler the boar appears all across indo-european mythology from shape-shifting beasts in india to the borgard marcus in gol the animal was hunted frequently for his meat leading to its eventual extinction in around the 14th to 15th century of course these hunts have not happened for hundreds of years but the stories of these endeavors are preserved in the mabinogio particularly in the story of kiluch and olwen this story describes the hunt of two boys a schitherwin penbayes and turk through kiluch king arthur's cousin was told his destiny was to marry olwen the daughter of the giant aspadarden was apparently very violent and had killed all but one of the sons of his neighbor this giant gave kuluk a series of tasks he would need to complete in order to marry his daughter two of which pertained to the hunting of two boys which would need to be killed in order to receive the necessary tools to shave the spalladin's beard king arthur first traveled to ireland in order to hunt turk trueth who had apparently destroyed a third of the island sheriff had seven offspring one of which was named pig and another which doesn't have a name at all turith and his piglets were driven across the iris sea to dovet after nine days of fighting and eventually all the piglets were killed the treasures that the boar held the comb the razor and the shears were taken from him truth ran into the sea and was never seen again king arthur then went out to kill us grifter and penbite the chief boy the king of ireland odgar up ive joined him in the hunt arthur's huntsman crushed the skull of us kethurin and his dog adopt the killing blow aspardon was then shaved with the tusk of the boar in preparation for the wedding however before this could happen he was killed by the last living son of his neighbor kyouk and orwen were married and she would be his only wife as long as he lived the war hunt in the story seems to echo prestige and strength the huntsmen are all described as masterful some uniquely so and the hunt is headed by the king of britain and the king of ireland the fight is long and difficult with many of arthas companions being killed but in the end the strongest warrior triumphs the ball lies dead its treasures are taken and keelu wins his prize just like how the hunters of old would also kill the beast take its meat and feed their family whilst arthur won fame and glory and slaying the most dangerous creature in ireland the hunter would win only their survival and enough food to last their family a long time it's been estimated that wolves in stone age britain were quite uncommon but these animals appear to have far outlived many of their contemporaries of course if you were to tell them this they wouldn't be very proud because they wouldn't be able to understand you not only do they appear everywhere in welsh mythology but they also feature heavily an angle of saxon writings too there are over 200 places in england named after wolves while beavers only got 20. the writings of the walls portray them just as they are in nature ambush predators they do not seek out the protagonist only appearing in moments of weakness and they'll often need to be purposely sought out by the hero of the story remember at madog another one of joffrey and mama's fictional kings of britain was said to have been devoured by wolves after being separated from his group whilst hunting the story of gellard describes how sewell and the great's dog defended his baby from a wolf that had managed to enter the castle sawelan seeing his son missing and his dog covered in blood flew into a rage and killed his companion only later after hearing his baby's cries and discovering the body of the wolf did he realize his mistake dogs or hounds appear in the name of two kings of gwyneth canether and malcon possibly being metaphors for strong capable warriors or hunters unless and annun the mystical otherworld of spirits and fairies is said to also be inhabited by ghostly white hounds that hunted the souls of unbaptized men saint brenach apparently owned a wolf that acted as a herdsmen to his cow the relationship between these two animals seems to be preserved through the place names of casw and castes blithe in david and possibly cowbridge and sanblaithian in morganrug the most unusual depiction of wolves in welsh mythology is their occasional shape-shifting properties gil vithri and gudyon two brothers who appear in the mabinogion were envious of the wife of the lord of gwyneth matthaup mathony once math learns of this he transforms the brothers into stags swine and finally wolves each for one year the brothers returned after the final year and brought back a wolf club who was then transformed back into a human by math and baptized as blazer math made peace with the brothers too and turned them back to their human form the other mention of human wolf transformations occurs again in the tale of killuk and olwen a woman named remni and her two sons were transformed into wolves by god as punishment was on unnamed sin king arthur was sent to hunt rimni and he eventually tracked it down to abba daiglethev however before they could be killed dary sand saint david transformed them back into people which is a rather unusual superpower to have the connection with wolves and sin is interesting the people in these two stories were transformed because of their sins while math afmathonui seems to have been able to change them back at will only god or derisant presumably acting through god had the power to turn remnant back into a woman another saint brenach is the only person i could find that possessed a tame wolf was this supposedly possible due to his connection with god and was this connection intentional did magranath look more powerful or more holy did a superstition exist amongst the welsh that all or at least a fair amount of wolves were these men and women transformed as punishment for their sin we don't know but i think it's interesting to see what theories we can think of with the limited information that we have i find it fascinating that these ancient animals are preserved in our writings and our stories they'd roam this island for thousands of years and we have proof that our ancestors saw them face to face they entered their culture their superstitions their tales of bravery and brutality against all these animals whose bones are their only remnants you won't see a wolf if you roam the forests of wales today or a boy or a bear but you might encounter the great great great great great great grandchild of someone who did thank you all very much for watching if this video gets 100 likes i'll make the top 10 stupidest dead animals in great britain that i am glad are extinct

Channel: Cambrian Chronicles

Views: 252,926

Keywords: Welsh mythology, mythology of Wales, Welsh history, history of Wales, Llywelyn, Gelert, Mabinogion, Culhwch and Olwen, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wales, Ancient Britain, Medieval Wales, Ancient Wales, Medieval Britain, Llywelyn the great, Beddgelert, wolves in britain, bears in britain, extinct animals in britain, Celtic, Celtic mythology, Celtic history

Id: -5sZkJpCGH0

Length: 8min 40sec (520 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 17 2022