Friday, January 27, 2017
Bran the Blessed
The story of Bran the Blessed is fascinating to me. First, he was a Celtic deity and British King known for his role in the second branch of the myth Mabinogion. After he was mortally wounded by a poisoned dart, his severed head was the buried in London as a symbol of protection for the kingdom against invaders. One interesting fact is that the head continued to talk even after it was cut off...(freaky!) Bran was considered to be the god of creation and regeneration which is why his cauldron is significant because it represents eternal life. Overall, his impact on the people was evident and his story is quite interesting to read about.
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5 comments:
It is interesting to see how prevalent tails including magic were during this time period. Today people would be very unlikely to believe in a talking head or a cauldron that revives soldiers, or simply consider it an urban legend. As I mentioned in my comment on Joseph's post about Joseph of Arimathea, it is fascinating that these beliefs were so widespread and effected. Many of the myths and the belief in magic began to fall with the rise of science. In reading Frazer, he heavily discredits magic and even religion, saying science is the full truth and the highest evolution of knowledge that a civilization reaches.
The whole Bran and Mabinogion myth confused me. There were many names that were in a different language. However, I agree with Dylan that it is interesting that magic was so prevalent. But at the same time, so was science. There seemed to be a medium of science and magic in society, even a blend.
I think the fact that Bran's head continued to speak after it was cut off connects to a point that Weston made. The point being that humans and more specifically religions are fascinated by the idea of resurrection. It is not the death that is significant but the fact that they came back. The same idea applies to the cauldron because it brought people back to life showing that this idea of coming back to life was prevalent. However, as Dylan pointed out this became outdated as people started looking to science which rejected anything outside the realm of the natural. Science began to take over along with the realist movement to dispel of magic and religion that people believed in in previous times.
The idea that brand head continued to speak after it was cut off was very important to the people of the time. Coulderons and figures of heads became very popular because people believed to strongly in the idea of resurrection. It is also important to point out that his head was buried under the white tower in London in order to protect them from invaders. But, King Arthur duh up his head because only his "great strength" could save them. This just goes to show how the views on magic had evolved from awe and appreciation to disbelief.
I agree with what Julia said above. Humans have always searched for eternal life. This shows that the idea of resurrection and eternal life have been around for a very long time. Jessie Weston believed that this search was a central theme and that religion shouldn't be dismissed because it does have importance in life.
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