

“I will drive cattle on the ford to you, in the form of a grey she-wolf.” In this tale, the goddess Morigan curses Cuchulain. In Winifred Faraday’s 1904 translation of the 12 th century Tain we find an Irish story involving the wolf. It is Arthur who restores them to human form. In this story, there’s a princess who’s been transformed into a wolf for “her sins.” While living as a wolf the princess has two wolf cubs. The Mabinogion has another wolf curse within its pages, as well. I have fled as a wolf in the wilderness.” The two boys aren’t the only shapeshifters found in the Mabinogion either.
#Celtic music wolf blood free
With the original rape now being restituted, Gwydion is free to transform into the god-like figure he would become later in the tale. Following this third year of transformation, the two men are finally forgiven and restored to their human forms.
#Celtic music wolf blood full
The wolf pair then mates for another full year. Finally, the king converts them into a male and female wolf. The mating couple returns once more following another year of high-octane pleasure. This time, however, they’re turned into a boar and a sow. Following this first year of exile, the king then strikes the two beasts with his rod once more. Over the next year the pair breed with one another and they knew one another (to use an under appreciated biblical term).

Upon receiving their sentence, the two boys are struck by the king with his wooden rod, which in turn changes them into a proud stag and a beautiful hind. In the first story, the king’s nephews Gilvaethwy and Gwydion are being punished for having raped one of the king’s virgin handmaidens. Incidentally, they’re all about shapeshifters. Not only do we find some of the earliest known stories of Arthur within the text, but we’re also able to observe a few of the first Celtic wolf stories ever recorded. Lady Guest’s 1877 classic, the Mabinogion, was an English translation of some of the 11 th century surviving Welsh tales. Where one shapeshifting wolf could be seen as evil, for example, the next might very well turn towards a travelling priest and begin to preach the gospel. Wolves, it would seem, have always had varied personalities as diverse as their human counterparts.

The Celtic Wolf is a complex and Otherworldly creature.
