Hafgan. [W] "Summer White." He is the rival of Arawn, king of Annwn. He is slain by Pwyll of Dyfed in what appears to be an annual contest between Arawn and Hafgan, when Pwyll changes shapes with Arawn.

Hag of Beara. [I] See Cailleach Beara.

Hallowe'en. See Samhain and Calan Gaef.

Hanes Taliesin. [W] "The History of Taliesin." A work compiled in " the sixteenth century by Sion Llywelyn ( 1540-ca. 1615) from which Lady Charlotte Guest took material for herMabinogion translation in 1849. Most recent works on the Mabinogion saga tend to leave out this material, specifically relating to the origins of Taliesin, as being of a too late origin.

Head, Cult of the. The head was revered by all ancient Celtic societies. It was in the head and not the heart that they located the souls of men and women. In battle they collected the heads of enemies as trophies, a custom that seems to have died out around the turn of the millennium. Livy described how the victorious Boii in 216 B.C. took the head of an enemy chieftain and placed it in a temple. He described how "some Gallic [Celtic] horsemen came in sight, with heads hanging at their horses' breasts or fixed on their lances and singing their customary song of triumph." It is Diodorus Siculus, the Sicilian Greek historian, writing ca. 60-30 B.C., who gives us a full discription.

"They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants to carry off as boot, while striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and they nail up the fruits upon their houses, just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. High Kings They embalm in cedar oil the heads of the most distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest,and display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself refused the offer of a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold; thus displaying what is only a barbarous kind of magnanimity, for it is not a sign of nobility to refrain from selling the proofs of one's valour.
The cult of the head is frequently mentioned in Celtic mythology, particularly in the Irish Ulster Cycle. Cuchulainn, returning to Emain Macha after his first battle, is described as having three heads hanging from his chariot and "nine heads in one hand and ten in the other, and these he brandished at the hosts in token of his valour and prowess." To enforce that the Celts believed that the soul dwelt in the head and, therefore, the head could function without the body, we have the example of Conaire M6r, who is slain in "The Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel." His head is removed. But when Conall, the warrior, pours water into the mouth, it speaks and thanks him. In the Welsh tale about Bran the Blessed, Bran, having been mortally wounded, asks his companions to remove his head and take it back to the Island of the Mighty for burial. It takes them many years on their journey and, all the time, Bran's head eats, drinks, and speaks just the same as when he had been in life. Archaeological finds give full corroboration to this cult.
Heber.[I] See Eber.

Hefydd Hen. [W] Father of Rhiannon. Hen signifies "ancient."

Heilyn. [W] Son of Gwynn, one of the survivors of Bran and Matholwch's devastating war in Ireland. It is he who has the cour- age to open the magic door through which the seven survivors are released from the island of Gwales.

Heinin. [W] The chief bard at the court of Arthur at the time when Talisien arrives.

Heledd. [W] Daughter of Cynddylan.

Heremon. [I] See Eremon. Hervydd Hen. [W] See Hefydd Hen.

High Kings. Of Ireland, see Ard Ri.

Historia Brittonum. Latin text written ca. A.D. 800 by Nennius, a Welsh historian. It is important in connection with the origins of Arthurian literature as he mentions Arthur's twelve victories over the Anglo-Saxons.

Histoia Regnum Britanniae. (ca. A.D. 1137.) A Latin prose chronicle in 12 books by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welshman of Breton origin who was a cleric at Oxford. It is considered the source book of subsequent Arthurian sagas and the source book for Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, ca. 1580. Geoffrey, in writing his Historia says that he had only translated the work.
"Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, a man skilled in the art of public speaking and well informed about the history of foreign countries, presented me with a certain very ancient book written in the British language. The book, attractively composed to form a consecutive and orderly narrative, set out all the deeds of these men, from Brutus, the first King of the Britons, down to Cadwallader the son of Cadwallo. At Walter's request I have taken the trouble to translate the book into Latin.
If we are to take Geoffrey's word, then the book to which he refers is now lost. Indeed, many cynical scholars doubt whether such a book ever existed, believing it to be a figment of Geoffrey's imagination. Though why Geoffrey also involves Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford, is curious. If it is a forgery , then Walter would have been a conspirator and parry to it. Why should such a renowned churchman and scholar take part in the forgery? The main reason to believe that the book was a forgery is that it has not survived and, as Sir John Lloyd points out: "No Welsh composition exists that can be reasonably looked upon as the original or even the groundwork of the History of the Kings of Britain." But Geoffrey merely said it was written in "the British language;" That term could equally have meant Breton or Cornish as well as Welsh. And could it have been written in Cornish? The theory is not so farfetched when one considers a poem produced by John of Cornwall in the twelfth century in Latin hexameters, which he says he has translated from an old Cornish manuscript. John, to our gratitude, produces some glosses from the original text of Cornish words, which places the composition in Cornish to the tenth century. Furthermore, the work is called "The Prophecy of Merlin," while Geoffrey has a section entitled "The Prophecies of Merlin." The only known copy ofJohn of Cornwall's manuscript is a fifteenth century one, dated 8 October 1474, and currently in the Vatican Library. [Merlini prophetica cum expositione Joannis Cornubensis. cod. membr. 8 Octob. 1474. Seac. XIV, Vatican Library. See also Spicilegium Vaticanum, Frauenfeld, 1838, p. 92; andWhitley Stokes, "Cornica," Revue Celtique, vol. iii.]

Huarwar. [W] "The Hungry." One of the three plagues of Cornwall.

Hy-Brasil. [I] See Breasal.

Hywel Dda, Laws of. The Welsh equivalent of the Brehon law system and the system of law under which the independent Welsh state was governed into medieval times. Hywell ap Cadell, calledDda, "the good," ruled from about A.D. 910 to 950. He gave his name to the Welsh law system only because, during his reign, he decreed thatthe laws of Wales be gathered together in one unified code. The essential points of the record has Hywel summoning an assembly, consisting of the chief ecclesiastics together with six men from each local subdivision of the country, that discusses the laws for forty days. The result of the deliberations caused various changes and amendments to be made and then the revised laws were set down in writing and embodied in an authoritative book. This was doneunder the chairmanship of Blegwywrd, archdeacon of Llandaff, and thirteen scholars.
The laws survive in some seventy manuscripts, of which half date prior to the sixteenth century, the period when the law was actually practised. Two of the best studies on the laws are Aneurin Owen's Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, London, 1841 (two volumes),and The Laws of Hywel Dda (The Book of Blegwywrd), Melville Richards, Liverpool, 1954.