Horn of Bran the Niggard: Difference between revisions

This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. Please help improve the article by providing more context for the reader. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Horn of Bran the Niggard was one of the Thirteen Royal Treasures of the Island of Britain. The earliest sources of the legend of the Thirteen Treasures appear in the 7th Century Welsh poem Y Gogledd and are recycled in later works. They represent a tantalising glimpse of pre-Christian Celtic Mythology.

In the Triads it is written that Myrddin asked for those treasures from all the lords and kings who had them. They agreed that if he should obtain the Horn of Bran the Niggard he should obtain theirs from them, supposing that he would never get the Horn.

And nevertheless Merlin got the Horn, and after that he obtained the other treasures as well, and went with them to the "Glass House" and they (i.e. the Treasures) remain there for ever. Where or what this "glass house" is, is unknown. There are several tales of Merlin disappearing into the earth to await his return and perhaps this is one of them.

The origins of The Horn of Bran the Niggard come from Greek Mythology and are perhaps the same source as that used by Geoffrey of Monmouth which gives a Trojan ancestry for the kings of the Britons. It was said that Hercules obtained the Horn of Bran the Niggard from the head of the centaur after he was slain. Following this the the wife of the Centaur wetted Hercules' shirt in his (the centaur's) blood and when Hercules had put on the shirt it became impossible for him to ever take it off until the shirt had eaten his flesh and skin to the bone and thus Hercules was slain.