Comparative Myth Test 1 Terms

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Annales Cambriae

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A 10th Century text that speaks of the Celtic King Arthur. This is important because it shows how conceptions of Arthur changed over time, such as how he appears in Culhwch and Olwen.

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Brothers Grimm

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They were Romantics that sought to recover the "folk poetry" of Germany. They are important both because they helped peak the interest in folk tales, and also because they illustrate the view point that lore is in danger of dying and needs to be saved from oblivion.

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Chretien de Troyes

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Late 12th century writer of French romances where Arthur appears but is not all that significant. This is important because it shows how conceptions of Arthur changed over time. For example, the conception of him here is different from in Culhwch and Olwen.

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Culhwch

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He is the hero of the old Welsh tale "Culhwch and Olwen." He is cursed by his stepmother at birth to fall in love with Olwen, the daughter of a giant. The tale is important in being one of the first writings about Arthur, who is said to be Culhwch's cousin.

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Cultural Competence

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The ability to know how a text would have functioned in a certain culture. This is important because we must have some level of it to study anything that is not from our own culture, therefore is especially important to the study of mythology.

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Emic

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The insider's approach to studying myth. It is good for its precision and respect. Bronislaw Malinowski utilized this approach.

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Etic

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The outsider's approach to studying myth. It is good for comparative studies and the non-specialist, but bad because it risks being disrespectful. James Frazer utilized this approach.

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Folktale

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Along with Myth and Legend, it is one of the three types of oral prose narratives. William Bascom, in his chart, identified it as being fiction, in no-time, no place, having a secular attitude, and having human or non-human characters.

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King Arthur

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A supposed British King that, if he existed, existed in the 6th Century. He is important because he illustrates how a figure can change in the way he is represented, and also because he is the cousin of Culhwch in the Welsh tale "Culhwch and Olwen."

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Legend

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One of the three kinds of oral prose narrative, along with myth and folktale. William Bascom, in his chart, identifies it as being fact, in terms of belief of the culture it exists within, set in the recent past, in the world of today, either secular or sacred, and having principally human characters.

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Myth

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One of the three kinds of oral prose narrative, along with legend and folktale. William Bascom, in his chart, identifies it as being true, in terms of the belief of the culture it exists within, happening in a different world: other or earlier, having a sacred attitude, and having non-human characters.

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Mythic imagent

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The minimum amount of knowledge a person needs to understand a myth. This depends on cultural competence.

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Nationalism

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An increasingly patriotic attitude where you view your country as the autonomous "we" and every other country as the "other." This is important because most study of mythology started as an attempt to find the original lore of a nation.

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Nennius

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Welsh author of the earliest recorded account of Arthur in the 9th century. This is important because the history of Arthur shows how conceptions of him changed throughout history.

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Oral prose narrative

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The overarching category of which myth, legend, and folktale. However, other genres can be incorporated, such as epics and ballads. We need cultural competence to decide which sort of text we are dealing with.

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Romanticism

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Intellectual movement that was opposed to neoclassicism. It is important because it propagated the belief that peasants were uncorrupted and therefore held the key to folk lore.

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Sir Thomas Malory

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Wrote Le Morte d'Arthur while in prison. This is the conception of Arthur that most modern texts follow, and is important because it shows how the conception of a person can change throughout history.

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Y gododdin

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Composed c. 700 that mentions Arthur in a heroic elegy.

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Annwfn

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The otherworld in Welsh mythology. This is important because it is feature in Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, the first branch of the Mabinogi, where Pwyll, as punishment, has to trade places with Arawn, the king of Annwfn, for a year.

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Arawn

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King of the otherworld, or Annwfn, in Welsh mythology. He appears in the first branch of the Mabinogi, where he makes Pwyll trade places with him for a year as punishment.

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Pryderi

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The son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, he appears in all 4 branches of the Mabinogi. In Manawydan, son of Llyr, he is interesting in that he always wants to take the opposite action of Manawydan and fight the townsfolk, perhaps setting himself up as a contrasting character type from the almost cowardly seeming Manawydan.

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Pwyll

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He is the main character of the first branch of the Mabinogi, Pwyll Prince of Dyfed, and is the husband of Rhiannon. He is an important character because he traverses to the otherworld when Arawn, King of Annwfn which is the otherworld, gives him the punishment of trading places for a year.

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Teutates

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Teutates was a Celtic god that was said to be sacrificed to by having people plunged headfirst into a vat. This may be what is seen on the image of Relief from the Gundestrup Cauldron.

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the otherworld

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in Welsh mythology, Arawn is king of the otherworld which is called Annfwn. (provide more description from Pwyll)

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Triple death

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A sort of ritual sacrifice, where the person was sacrificed to three different gods. This is proposed to have happened to Lindow Man.

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Andrew Lang

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a. An anthropologist who believed in Survivals theory and that all people pass through the same stages of civilization and that in folklore we detect the relics of a stage of thought, which is dying out in Europe, but which still exists in many parts of the world.

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Bendigeidfran

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The king of Branwen daughter of Llyr, the second branch of the Mabinogi. At the end of the story, when he is mortally wounded, he asks for his head to be cut off and taken back to Britain, possibly supplying evidence for the supposed cult of heads.

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Cauldron of Rebirth

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This appears in Branwen daughter of Llyr, the second branch of the Mabinogi. It resuscitates dead soldiers, but, after they resurrect, they cannot speak. The image on the Gundestrup Cauldron may be a reference to this mythic cauldron.

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Efnisien

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He is Branwen's half-brother in Branwen daughter of Llyr, the second branch of the Mabinogi. He insults Matholwch the King of Ireland by mutilating his horses, and, in recompense, Bendigeidfran gives Matholwch the Cauldron of Rebirth.

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J.R.R. Tolkien

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A scholar that sought “to restore to the English an epic tradition and present them with a mythology of their own…” This illustrates a nationalistic impulse.

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Matholwch

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He is the King of Ireland in Branwen daughter of Llyr, the second branch of the Mabinogi. Bendigeidfran gives him the cauldron of rebirth for the horses that Efnisien mutilates.

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Max Muller

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Was a philologist that subscribed to solar mythology. The natural phenomenon at the heart of all myths was the sun. He believed the motions of the sun overawed primitive people.

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Mythopoeic age

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This is an idea associated with Max Muller's solar mythology. It is the age where myths were created because the Aryan people forgot what the abstractions in their language were supposed to stand for.

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Polyonomy

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One of the processes that linguistic confusion arose from. It is where one object accrues many names/meanings.

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Prometheus

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A titan in Greek mythology. He brings fire to humans and is an example of both a culture hero and a trickster.

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Reticulation

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A part of the Increasing emphasis in folkloristics on the “folk” part of the “folklore” where you looking at the storyteller. The idea is that cultural interaction is like a web instead of Linear, as Andrew Lang proposed.

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Synonomy

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One of the processes that linguistic confusion arose from. It is where one name applies to many objects.

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The Aryan people and language

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As Max Muller believed, an ancient people that were sort of the original mythmakers. Their language was incapable of abstraction, therefore phenomena were granted agency.

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The disease of language

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According to philologist Max Muller, the processes of Polynomy and Synonomy resulted in the disease of language where Aryan’s forgot what their words originally meant and were left with metaphor. Mythology is a disease of language.

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The Rigveda

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The oldest Vedic poem. Muller believed it was the closest to the Aryan myths.

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William Thoms

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The man who coined the term “folk lore” who was trying to rescue English folk lore from oblivion. This view was common among proponents of cultural evolution and nationalism.

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The Adventure of Cormac mac Airt

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An Irish tale that some people see as analogous to Manawydan son of Llyr, the third branch of the Mabinogi. The similarities are that Cormac’s family also disappears in a magic mist, and he finds a fortress in a plain and a cauldron and cup of truths.

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Culture hero

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A mythic type that invents goods necessary for civilization. An example of this would be the Greek Titan Prometheus. Some people also see Manawydan in this light.

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Euhemerus

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A Greek author c. 300 BCE. He is the namesake of euhemerism, where mythology is said to come from history. He wrote a fictional account where he supposedly found evidence for the Greek gods.

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Gesunkens Kulturgut

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Means debased cultural elements–folklore is a remnant of mythology. Forgotten by the elite but remembered by the folk.

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Gilbert Murray

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Was Lord Raglan’s nemesis. He was a proponent of both mythology from history and literary archaeology, claiming, for example, that heroes once represented whole tribes.

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Herodotus

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The ancient Greek “Father of History.” He euhemerized some of the Greek gods.

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Jane Harrison

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She was a myth-ritualist. She believed that myths were scripts for rituals, and therefore that myths were subordinate to rituals.

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Manawydan

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The hero of the third branch of the Mabinogi, Manawydan son of Llyr. Some see him as a culture hero (invents customs and goods necessary for a civilization).

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Mannanan mac Lir

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He was an old Irish god that was a tricky magician and had a cloak of invisibility. Some people see Manawydan from the third branch of the Mabinogi as a Welsh cognate of him.

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Lord Raglan

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A myth-ritualist. He came up with a heroic pattern of 22 incidents. Oedipus, being his best example, matches 21 of these incidents.

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Mythic idea

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Gaster believed that myth and ritual are one thing from two perspectives. Both express the "mythic idea." Both may originate from the same source but then diverge.

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Restoration of the Wasteland

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A fertile land which has become barren needs to be restored by a hero. This reoccurs in myth, making it a mytheme. Some see the third branch of the Mabinogi, Manawydan son of Llyr, as an example of this mytheme.

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Ritual

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Repeated, traditional symbolic actions that reference the sacred.

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Samuel Hooke

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Was a myth-ritualist that believed Myth is “the spoken part of ritual; the story which the ritual enacts,” and believed that myth was subordinate to ritual.

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Sir James Frazer

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Was a myth-ritualists. He believed in the search for the “ur-form,” or original form, and accepted cultural evolution.

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Snorri Sturluson

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13th century Icelander and compiler of The Prose Edda. His prologue euhemerizes the Norse gods.

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Theodore Gaster

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He was a myth-ritualists. He believed that myth and ritual were the same thing from two perspectives. They both express the "mythic idea."

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Aranrhod

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The sister of Gwydion in Math son of Mathnwy, the fourth branch of the Mabinogi. She is a somewhat masculine character, in that, like Rhiannon, she often takes charge. However, the charge she takes is often negative, in contrast to the more positive actions of Rhiannon.

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Bronislaw Malinowski

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Was an anthropologist and ethnographer. He took the "emic" instead of "etic" view of studying myth, and was opposed to what he viewed as "arm-chair" anthropology of Frazer.

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Cosmogony

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A myth about the foundation of the world. Eliade takes this to be the most important myth.

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Emile Durkheim

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A sociologist that believed that both myths and rituals serve sociological purposes. Both of these things encode social values and norms. They do this using symbolism and allegory.

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Franz Boas

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He was an anthropologist. He believed myths should be taken literally. They were reflective of social facts.

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Function (after Propp)

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Syntagmatic structuralists tried to determine the fundamental functions of a tale. Function here being used to describe a character's function in a story--how that character was used.

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Gwydion

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He is the nephew of King Math in Math son of Mathonwy, the fourth branch of the Mabinogi. Some see in him the character type of the trickster, in that he transgresses moral, natural, metaphysical and other boundaries and is very duplicitous.

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Heroic pattern

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As a part of syntagmatic structuralism, some scholars deconstruct narratives into constituent parts and compare them. Scholars who have done this include Vladimir Propp, Otto van Rank, and Lord Raglan.

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Hierophany

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Clues to a myth's underlying structure. Eliade is a proponent of this.

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Mircea Eliade

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He believed that religion is man’s response to the sacred. Sacred and profane constitute two perceptions of reality. Protrusion of the sacred into the profane world is religious experience.

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Rites of Passage

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The rites of passage are birth, initiation and death. Lord Raglan's connection between ritual and the hero pattern is that the heroic pattern reflects ritual. And each point of the pattern belongs to one of these three rituals.

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Vladimir Propp

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He wanted to know how to classify folktales. He tried to identify the fundamental functions of a tale, of which he identified 31. He was a structuralist and took his cues from biology.