Cernunnos, the Horned God
Cernunnos Sleeps
The Old God sleeps
down in the dark, moist,
odorous underfoot,
Waiting for us
To put down our roots
~ J. M. Reinbold
Cernnunos, the Horned God has appeared in a multitude of forms and made himself known by many names to nearly every culture throughout time. He is perhaps best known to us now in his Celtic aspects of the untamed god of the animals and fertility, of the Underworld; the leaf-covered Green Man; the Guardian of the Green World. But he is much older.
Dunmail, the Last King of Cumbria
Dunmail Raise is the name of a large cairn situated near Grasmere, which may have been used an old boundary marker. In legend, the cairn marked the burial of a local king named Dunmail; or the historical Dyfnwal ab Owain, King of Strathclyde.
Adam Bell, the Robin Hood of the North
Adam Bell was a legendary English outlaw. He and his companions William of Cloudsley and Clym of the Clough lived in Inglewood Forest. He is referred to as the ‘Robin Hood of the North’. Their story is told in Child Ballad 116 entitled ‘Adam Bell, Clym of the Cloughe and Wyllyam of Cloudeslee’. The oldest printed copy of this Ballad dates from 1505, and Bell is thought to be the “Adam” mentioned by Shakespeare in Much Ado About Nothing:
“…hang me in a bottle like a cat, and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let him be clapp’d on the shoulder, and call’d Adam”
References:
Nicolson, J. and Burn, R. 1777 The history and antiquities of the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland
Rowling, M. 1976 The folklore of the Lake District
Wood, M. 2005 In Search of Myths and Heroes
Greenblatt, S. 2006 The Norton Anthology of English Literature
Simpson, J. 2007 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation
Clarkson, T. 2010 The Men of the North: The Britons and Southern Scotland
Clarkson, T. 2014 Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age
Evans, Z. T. 2019 British Legends: The Outlaws of Inglewood and the Feminine Influence
Evans, G. 1974 The Riverside Shakespeare
Holt, J. C. 1982 Robin Hood
Bard of Cumberland 