Éomond posted:
But anyway, where the Celts that much into cavalry and
horses? Didn't seem like it but I'm probably way off.
Religious traditions involving horses pervade the traditions of
peoples speaking Indo-European
languages, perhaps because the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European were a
horse breeding people of the steppe. The horse-pulled chariot seems to have been their invention and accompanied them into India, the Middle-east, Greece and Italy.
One theory is that it was the horse-chariot that led to the spread of Indo-Eureopean conquerors that spread the Indo-European language so far. Others disagree, dating the spread of Indo-European languages much earlier.
As horses were bred to be larger in size, people began to regularly ride on horses instead of using horse-drawn chariots.
But there was generally an increased dependance of foot soliders.
However in Britain horse-drawn chariots were still used by the Celtic speaking peoples at the time of the Roman invasion. Irish tradition pictures horse chariots during the same period.
The Goths were formidable cavalrymen, and probably in part inspired
Tolkien’s
Rohirrim, though he represents the language of the Rohirrim by Old English and not by Gothic. (The historic Old English seem not to have been great horsemen.)
There is nothing particularly Celtic about the Rohirrim.
Neneithel posted:
However, whether Rhiannon represented a goddess is a matter of speculation. All we really know about her is that in the Mabinogion she appears as a mysterious woman of the Otherworld. Epona is a British horse goddess, Rhiannon is probably a representation of sovereignty. In Welsh, Rhiannon means simply "maiden" and has no connection with horses at all.
The site
Y Geiriadur Gweol: gives the etymology of
Rhiannon as:
(rhian, variant of rhiain = maiden) + (-on, suffix often found in names of deities)
. However a surmised Gaulish
Rigatona ‘Queen-great’ also fits perfectly. But neither name contains anything referring to ‘horse’.
The supposed connection with Epona (a name which means ‘mare’ comes about because Epona is a goddess of horses, many depictions of Epona show her followed by three
birds and she is sometimes shown followed by a dog.
Rhiannon first appears mounted on a horse, her son is stolen by a supernatural being who also has been stealing colts and she is later given the punishment of waiting by the horse block to carry any guest to the court into the court on her back as though she were a mare.
The birds of Rhiannon that wake the dead and lull the living the sleep are mentioned in the medieval Welsh tale ‘Culhwch and Olwen’.
When Rhiannon’s son is stolen, her women kill some puppies and smear Rhiannon’s face with blood to convince all that Rhiannon has killed and eaten her child.
Also the box or cornucopia the Epona sometimes bears may be cognate with Rhiannon’s bag that cannot be filled.
See
http://www.druidry.org/obod/deities/epona.html.
So identity of Epona and Rhiannon is quite likely, but as you point out, not actually proved.
Even if Epona and Rhiannon are not exactly the same, they seem to share features. But then many gods and goddesses share features with one another.
There is too much silliness in
books and on the web about identifying various gods and goddesses with one another, often ones about which we scarcely know anything at all.
Of course a connection between kingship ritual and horses ins documented in Ireland and in Sanskrit texts whence the speculation that Rhiannon represents sovereignty also. But in the
Mabinogion Pwyll is already a king so that motif doesn’t actually appear.
