"the hope of armies,"
and thus he may be a god of fertility who became a god of war and the
chase. But legend associated him with Annwfn, and regarded him, like the
Tuatha Dea, as a king of fairyland.[416] In the legend of S. Collen, the
saint tells two men, whom he overhears speaking of Gwyn and the fairies,
that these are demons. "Thou shalt receive a reproof from Gwyn," said
one of them, and soon after Collen was summoned to meet the king of
Annwfn on Glastonbury Tor. He climbed the hill with a flask of holy
water, and saw on its top a splendid castle, with crowds of beautiful
and youthful folk, while the air resounded with music. He was brought to
Gwyn, who politely offered him food, but "I will not eat of the leaves
of the tree," cried the saint; and when he was asked to admire the
dresses of the crowd, all he would say was that the red signified
burning, the blue coldness. Then he threw the holy water over them, and
nothing was left but the bare hillside.[417] Though Gwyn's court on
Glastonbury is a local Celtic Elysium, which was actually located there,
the story marks the hostility of the Church to the cult of Gwyn, perhaps
practised on hilltops, and this is further seen in the belief that he
hunts souls of the wicked and is connected with Annwfn in its later
sense of hell. But a mediant view is found in _Kulhwych_, where it is
said of him that he restrains the demons of hell lest they should
destroy the people of this world. In the _Triads_ he is, like other
gods, a great magician and astrologer.[418]

Another group, unknown to the _Mabinogion_, save that Taliesin is one of
the bearers of Bran's head, is found in the _Book of Taliesin_ and in
the late story of Taliesin. These, like the _Arthur_ cycle, often refer
to personages of the _Mabinogion_; hence we gather that local groups of
gods, originally distinct, were later mingled in story, the references
in the poems reflecting this mingling. Late as is the _Hanes Taliesin_
or story of Taliesin, and expressed as much of it is in a _Maerchen_
formula, it is based on old myths about Cerridwen and Taliesin of which
its compiler made use, following an old tradition already stereotyped in
one of the poems in the _Maerchen_ formula of the Transformation
Combat.[419] But the mythical fragments are also mingled with traditions
regarding the sixth century poet Taliesin. The older saga was perhaps
developed in a district south of the Dyfi estuary.[420] In Lake Tegid
dwell