My last post transgressed the 64,000 word limited so I am having to split it into three parts. I also note that comments I inserted in red have not come out in that colour. So I apologise for the confusion there but have put it right in this post. The complete article was also attached as a word document to the last post for those who want to read it as an entire piece. Here is the second part of the post:
I only recently came across this website
The Northumberland Manuscript, which I think sheds more light on what may be stored at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, the seat of the Percy family, the Dukes of Northumberland. I directly quote from the article:
“In the space available for this article there was no room to deal adequately with two important Baconian documents which are still preserved. The first is in the British Museum and is Francis Bacon's "Promus"; this is a notebook in his own hand-writing containing 133 folio sheets on which are listed various phrases and turns of speech in English and other languages, many of which re-appear almost verbatim, in the Shakespeare plays. (See illustration on p. 3). This MS. was extensively edited by Mrs. Henry Pott (Longmans, Green & Co., 1883) and was also re-printed in "Bacon is Shakespeare" by Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence (John McBride & Co., New York, 1910).
The second document is the "Northumberland MS". which is now at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, and which is briefly described in Baconiana 160. It was once Bacon's property, and still contains some of his early writings in copy-hand script, although the two Shakespearean plays--Richard II and Richard III, mentioned in the original list of contents--are now missing. Their presence in the original MS. is significant, to say the least of it; and although the contemporary scribblings on the cover (which idly or intentionally connect the names "William Shakespeare" in various spellings and "Mr. ffrauncis Bacon") are extremely interesting, the important historical point is the unique survival of a manuscript originally containing works from each of these two great contemporary "pens". This document was reproduced in facsimile by
Frank J. Burgoyne (Longmans, Green & Co., 1904). The original manuscript is reported to be gradually fading.
I would also add two other quotes from the article that may be relevant to us here.
Of Magnanimitie of heroicall virtue. By Bacon p. 28
Thirdly because
The Tempest (like his own
New Atlantis) was partly inspired by his personal and close association with the
Virginia Company.
I have been an avid watcher of the TV series ‘The Curse of Oak Island’. Amongst the many findings by Ricky and Marty Lagina in the long running TV series has been some leather book binding that has led some to speculate that original copies of Shakespeare’s works may be found in the Money Pit.
The Curse of Oak Island - Wikipedia
N.B. I am attaching pdf copies of the manuscripts for people to peruse.
How is all this relevant to bloodlines? Well I set out below what I think was a very enlightening session with the C’s that might help to explain this.
Session 6 June 1998:
A: Bloodlines reveal destiny. Why do you think they have been covered up so thoroughly?
A: Answer to that is like circumnavigating the interior of a balloon. [
References to the inner earth and the Nation of the Third Eye perhaps? Also possibly to Sir Francis Drake, a contemporary of Dee, who was the first to circumnavigate the globe for Queen Elizabeth I.]
Q: {Question lost because of tape malfunction.}
A: Explore all possible angles of that answer. [
Another reference to Freemasons perhaps and to John Dee who was a leading mathematician]
A: It was der Fuhrer who tried hardest. But not nearly enough.
Q: {Question lost because of tape malfunction.}
A: Find it in order to supercede the very power structure that created him. [
The Illuminati via the Thule Society]
Q: What power structure was this?
A: The "Third Reich."
Q: And who created the Third Reich?
A: Illuminati.
Q: So Hitler thought he could find something that would enable him to take complete control...
A: Sort of like a termite trying to vanquish "Orkin."
Q: What is it in this
bloodline that makes it so important to cover it up?
A: It would lead directly to verity on a scale never before seen on earth while at 3rd density STS.
Q: And what would be the result of this verity?
A: The truth shall set you free... as you are imprisoned!
A: The "main danger" is when on reveals too much before one has enough stature or notoriety, on web pages, for example.
A: Tread lightly.
Q: Alright, I will. Where did these
bloodlines originate?
A:
Orion region.
Q: For how long were they maintained with any semblance of purity?
A:
Indefinite. [Are these the Aryans who are living within the inner earth?]
Q: Are you saying that they are still maintaining them and manipulating them from other densities?
A: That is for you to discover.
Q: Are these
bloodlines carrying a specific codon that is designed to activate at a certain period of time or in response to a certain frequency?
A: Possibly, but why should not that apply to everyone?
Q: Okay, so we have got ticking time bombs in our DNA, all of us!
A: Maybe.
Q: Alright, bizarro... (A) It is not necessarily time bombs, these are bombs which could be ignited by something else, like knowledge. (L) Is that the case, that knowledge could unlock these codons?
A: Yes.
Q: Certain activities such as meditating?
A: Yes. Or... channeling. [
Could this refer to John Dee and others channelling 6D and 4D beings?]
Q: So, channeling can actually unlock these potentials...
A: Enough on your plate for tonight... Good Night.
************************************
I then came across the article linked below on a website that I believe helps to cast a new light on the legend of King Arthur and the Hyperboreans, which may in turn link to the Nation of the Third Eye and more recent mythology including Admiral Richard Byrd and the Nazis. I have transposed most of the article to this post and would warn you that it is long but worth reading. You should note the section in the article that indicates just how quickly an ice age can develop (90 days), something the C’s have repeatedly warned us of.
King Arthur in Hyperborea & The Arctic Mud Flood Cataclysm.
The author states at the outset that it isn’t his intention to get into a debate about Arthur’s authenticity or identity: “
the horse has already bolted on that issue, in my opinion and by now the waters are so muddy it’s impossible to catch even a glimpse of the bottom”.
He then states that the oldest surviving works on Arthur comprise:
- Historia Brittonum c.828
- Adam of Bremen's ‘Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesia Pontificum’ c. 1075.
- Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae, c. 1138
- Leges Anglorum Londoniis Collectae, c. 1210
- William Lambarde's ‘Archaionomia sive de Priscus Anglorum Legibus libri’, 1568.
These are the books that
have been allowed to survive because they depict an image of Arthur that is suitable for public consumption – a heroic champion and crusader of the Christian faith.
The lost books are the ones that have been hunted down and destroyed because they don’t fit in with the official narrative. These are precisely the books that are far more likely to contain the truth. I realise I am firmly in
@jim Duyer territory here and I’m relying on his generosity to put me straight regarding early Anglo-Saxon sources that I’m not aware of.
The main pivot of this ‘tale’ rests on two different books. Both of them are ‘lost’:
- ‘Inventio Fortunata’ (The Blessed Discovery)
- ‘Gestis Arthuri ’ (The Deeds of Arthur)
Despite its title, the
Inventio Fortunata isn’t a Harry Potter spell book. All we have left of these two books are references to them.
The most prominent of these are from our old 16th century friends, Dr. John Dee, Gerardus Mercator and his map-making pals, plus a certain
Jacobus Cnoyen of Hertogenbosch (in present-day Netherlands). He summarised the
Inventio Fortunata as it was related to him in 1364 in Norway by a Franciscan monk who had met the author. Cnoyen’s own travel-book was called the ‘
Itinerarium’, but guess what, this book has also been lost, or rather suppressed.
2. The Septentrional Islands
The
Inventio Fortunata described a very different topography for the Arctic Circle to that which we have been told exists today and was the authoritative basis for mainstream maps, globes and atlas’ for more than 150 years when that particular configuration of land around the North Pole was censored from the public’s awareness by simply and literally erasing it from the maps.
Martin Behaim’s globe of 1492 was the first ever to be centred on the North Pole itself and shows a series of islands encircling it. Two larger islands are depicted right near the Pole in the western hemisphere, while extensions of Europe and Asia reach northwards. Together they form a broken circle of land around the Pole.
A world map by Johannes Ruysch, the
Universalior cogniti orbis tabula, published in an edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia in Rome in 1508, actually mentions the
Inventio Fortunata and shows the same four islands around the North Pole; two are labelled “
Insula Deserta”; the one north of Europe is that of the
Hyperboreans; and the one north of America is labelled “
Aronphei.” He labels the waters within the four islands as the “
Mare Sugenum,” and speaks of a violent whirlpool that sucks the incoming waters down into the earth; in addition, his map shows a ring of small, very mountainous islands around the four main islands, which Ruysch says are uninhabited. A
high magnetic rock at the Arctic Pole is also described.
There are many, many other contemporary maps –literally scores, including examples from as late as the 1700s, that show the same configuration of islands around the Pole. There are even Chinese maps that show the northern islands (e.g. Shanhai Yudi Quantu, Complete Geographic Map of the Mountains and Seas, 1609). These Chinese maps are derived from the world maps of the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610.) Mercator-influenced maps also appear in Japan: Abe Yasuyuki’s Banukoku Chikyu Yochi Zenzu or Map of the World (1853), shows the four northern islands.
Please see this excellent thread for a detailed discussion of
Hyperborean maps.
The most famous
Inventio Fortunata inspired map is Mercator’s 1569 World Map with its Polar Insert. Map collectors have been saying for decades that this map contains details such as the island in the Hudson Bay and the 2 major rivers that feed into it, that were unknown to other cartographers and didn’t appear on maps until the 19th century, 300 years later.
The island on the bottom right is labelled: “Here live pygmies no more than 4 feet tall like those in Greenland that are called ‘Skraelinger’”. [
Grey aliens maybe?]
Upper left, describes 4 rivers with 19 openings to the ocean, All flow north and empty into the central sea then pass to the inner earth through a 33 league (114 mile) wide canyon below the mountain.
Lower left, “healthiest and most fabulous island in the North”.
Top right identifies the islands as the Bargu (Bargos) islands. A later version claims that they rotate around the pole and that compass needles always point south. On the back of the later version it states that when navigating in the Bargos Islands all compass directions must be reversed. Also mentions the six months of darkness and daylight, the aurora borealis, the sound of bells in the far north and the ‘Monochar Order’.
The island to the north of Pygmy-land is labelled: “This narrow channel has a harbour and due to its narrowness and swift current never freezes.”
3. King Arthur in The Northern Lands
On the 20 April 1577, Gerardus Mercator replied to a letter from John Dee which Dee later published in a manuscript entitled "
Volume of Great and Rich Discoveries". Dee was questioning Mercator with regard to the provenance of the Polar insert on his 1569 Arctic map. Mercator had borrowed Cnoyen’s ‘
Itinerarium’ from a friend and detailed all of his notes from it to Dee in the letter. Unfortunately Dee’s manuscript has been badly damaged by fire, but enough remains to gain a very good idea of the
Inventio Fortunata’s contents.
Mercator's letter to John Dee
Around 1577 or 1578 John Dee wrote a book entitled "
Brytanici Imperii Limites" (The Limits of the British Empire), which is a compilation of 4 documents originally written for Queen Elizabeth I and assembled under his supervision in 1593, then placed in the Crown’s Archives. It was only rediscovered in 1976, and is now in the British Library.
To establish some frame of reference for the original documents’ time period, London was full of interest in the ‘New World’ and
Martin Frobisher had returned from his first voyage to what is now Baffin Island, Canada.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert was applying for his letters patent to colonise all of North America north of Florida. England was desperately looking for ways to discredit the Spanish claim to America.
In his
Brytanici Imperii Limites, Dee argued that because
King Arthur had once extended his kingdom to include Ireland, Greenland, Iceland and parts of the North Pole, so too might Queen Elizabeth I. He also argued that England should lay claim to new lands through colonisation and that this could be achieved through maritime supremacy.
He also included ‘Atlantis’ in his list of acquisitions, but everyone will tell you what he really meant was ‘America’, even though everyone else seemed to be calling it Terra Florida at the time. [
Could this be why the C’s mentioned Zuber in Florida in the transcripts?]
It would be easy to discount this concept as the ravings of madman who was basing such a wild claim on nothing more than a fantasy and who was simply trying to gain favour with the Queen, but he had proof and he wasn’t the first to associate Arthur with northern conquests.
“
Note the Colonies sent by King Arthur into all the north Islands and by name into Grocland, which I yet suppose to be the same which is otherwise anciently known as Groenland [i.e., Greenland] and of that you had the word before owt of the boke De Priscus Anglorum Legibus” (Dee assumes that Grocland is Greenland based solely upon the shared ‘Gr’. However, on Mercator's globe Grocland lies west of Greenland and may be a representation of the Arctic Baffin Island.)
The source he refers to was William Lambarde's
Archaionomia sive de Priscus Anglorum Legibus libri (1568), which Dee had a copy of in his famous library. This same source was also known to
Richard Hakluyt, another proponent of an Arthurian Atlantic and Arctic empire, who would translate it later in his ‘
Principal Nauigations’ (1599):
“
Arthur which was sometimes the most renowned king of the Britains, was a mightie, and valiant man, and a famous warriour. This kingdome was too litle for him, & his minde was not contented with it. He therefore valiantly subdued all Scantia, which is now called Norway, and all the Islands beyond Norway, to wit, Island [i.e., Iceland] and Greenland, which are apperteining vnto Norway, Sweueland, Ireland, Gotland, Denmarke, Semeland, Windland [Latin text, Winlandiam], Curland, Roe, Femeland [i.e., Finland], Wireland, Flanders, Cherilland, Lapland, and all the other lands & Islands of the East sea, euen vnto Russia (in which Lapland he placed the Easterly bounds of his Brittish Empire) and many other Islands beyond Norway, euen vnder the North pole, which are appendances of Scantia, now called Norway.”
William Lambarde himself had a very clear source for the text he gave in his
Priscus Anglorum Legibus - a manuscript of the
Leges Edwardi Confessoris that contained an Arthurian section taken from the
Leges Anglorum Londoniis Collectae, from c. 1210. (I hope you’re following this because I’m not sure I do…) The tradition of Arthur as an Arctic conqueror must certainly go back to at least the very early thirteenth century.
Even older evidence comes from a fragment of a text known as
Insule Britannie, c.1199. Whilst it makes no mention of Arthur by name, it lists a number of northern islands as being "British" possessions, all but one of which are also named (in similar spellings) as constituent parts of Arthur's British Empire in the
Leges Anglorum. This would indicate that there was an even earlier source than the
Leges and the
Insule Britannie, now ‘lost’. It’s unlikely that they are simply elaborations of Geoffrey of Monmouth's
Historia Regum Britanniae, given their very different concept of Arthur. Similarly, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s source, the
Historia Brittonum c.828, with its ‘dux bellorum’ or military leader, bears no relation to the King Arthur of the
Leges and the
Insule Britannie. It is highly likely that the lost source is the
Gestae Arthuri. Both the
Leges Anglorum and the
Insule Britannie are sanitised versions of it with falsified incorporations from Adam of Bremen's
Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesia Pontificum of c. 1075, whereby the account of the Christian conversion of Norway (begun by John, an English bishop, and spread by Olaf, king of Norway), was transferred to Arthur.
Eirik the Red is also claimed to have discovered and subjugated Greenland and Vinland in the ninth or tenth century. These Norse sagas reported in detail the discovery voyages of Iceland, Greenland and Vinland. However and very importantly, the
Gestae Arthuri has the knowledge of these lands as a precondition – there is no discovery required. Also, if the
Gestae Arthuri is simply transferring the Norse tales to Arthur, why do the Norse sagas never mention the Hyperborea region at all? Besides, the
Gestae Arthuri may even predate Eirik the Red’s adventures.
Also “when the Norse first landed on Iceland, they found it inhabited by a British people that they termed the “Pappar”, whom they promptly drove extinct.” Good luck trying to find any decent information on these Pappars.
Source
“
Dee went to some pains to legitimize his Arthurian material, complaining that the profusion of "fables, glosinges, vntruthes, and impossibilities, incerted in the true historie of King Arthure" meant that the "truth yt selfe" of Arthur's historical acts, as Dee conceived it, was often disbelieved or ignored, and can only be retrieved through a purging of the parasitic legends that had gathered around it... Having weeded out the "untruths" from the Arthurian narratives he had gathered, Dee could confidently proclaim that Arthur had conquered Gaul, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, all the northern islands around Russia (i.e., the entire Arctic Ocean abutting northern Europe, Estotiland—which may be the Canadian Baffin Island, if it describes a real place), as well as the North Pole itself.” Source
In his
Brytanici Imperii Limites Dee states that there once were many proofs of Arthur's conquests, but "
willfully and wickedlie (as by sondrie credible gentlemen I have heard it testefied), this Polijdor [Polydore Vergil] burnt [them], yea a whole carte load almost"
Dee's concept of Arthur as a North Atlantic and Arctic conqueror doesn’t appear to have been his own invention.
4. Arthur’s Quest to the North Pole
What follows is a story about King Arthur that doesn’t equate with any character of romantic fiction…
In northern Norway (which is also called dark Norway [because] it is dark three months on end, the sun never rising above the horizon) there is sometimes a sort of dawn ... The passage to North Norway is not easy because of the fast flowing seas which flow past Grocland … This North Norway stretches to those mountains which surround the North Pole in a circular course. These are the mountains of which it is written that they were among them certain cities, as you can find mentioned in the
Arthuri Gestis, and over against them dwell people of small stature, mentioned in the same work. These things, and more besides, concerning the northern regions can be found at the beginning of the
Arthuri Gestis. Long ago the islands lying in the North were called the Ciliae, now the Septentrionals, and among them were North Norway and many small rivers which are called the Indrawing Seas because their waters are pulled towards the North with a great constant force, such that no wind can drive a ship against them. And in this attitude there are very high mountains reaching to the clouds, and in this attitude the air is very often murky and dark.
In the 78th degree of latitude (like a crown or circlet) there stand around the North Pole immensely high mountains over most of the land, but in some places there are reports that these Indrawing Seas, [are] in some places up to 50, 60, or 100 leagues across (some broader but others narrower) which everywhere pull to the North. One group of Arthur’s knights sailed thus far when he was conquering the Northern Isles and making them all subject to him. And in the writings of the ancients it is stated that these Indrawing seas snatched from Arthur some 4000 men who never returned, but [that], in 1364 eight of the descendants of these men returned to the King of Norway, and among them were two priests, one of whom had an
astrolabe, and he was descended by five generations from [a man named] Bruxellensis, who … was in one of the first ships to penetrate those northern regions.
That Great Army of Arthur had lain all the winter (of 530 AD) in the northern islands of Scotland. And on May 3 a part of it crossed over into Iceland. Then four ships of the aforesaid land had come out of the north and warned Arthur of the indrawing seas. Arthur did not proceed further but peopled all the islands between Scotland and Iceland, and also peopled Grocland, where he found people 23 feet tall. When those four ships returned there were sailors who asserted they knew where the magnetic lands were.
On May 3 the following year Arthur then sent 12 ships with 1800 men and 400 women northwards. Of these 12 ships, five were driven onto the rocks in a storm but the rest made their way between the high rocks on June 18, forty-four days after they had set out. (Please note:
seven ships made land.)
The priest who had the astrolabe told the King of Norway that there had come to the Northern Isles in 1360 an English Minorite from Oxford, who was a good astronomer. He, leaving the others who had come to these islands, set off further throughout all the northern regions and put into writing all their wonders, and gave the resulting book, which he called
Inventio Fortunae, to the King of England. This book begins from the furthest clime, from 54°, and continues
all the way to the Poles. This Franciscan reported that these mountains surround the Pole without a break except in those places where the Indrawing seas break through.”
Some things not mentioned by Dee that were included in Mercator’s letter are:
- North Norway lies “over against” the country called The Province of Darkness.
- The Province of Darkness is the most westernbound of the Grand Cham’s land. [F: Tartaria/China.]
- Just 12 miles of sea separate The Province of Darkness from Dusky Norway.
- Right under the North Star, opposite Norway, there lies a fair level land which is uninhabited, where many beautiful… (burnt and illegible.)
- Evidence of previous human settlement in the form of shipbuilding remnants were discovered in Iceland and Grocland.
- "There are many trees of Brazil wood" in Markland (Labrador).
- Detailed descriptions of the magnetic rock at the north pole, as high as the clouds and the whirlpool around its base.
- Details of the polar geography and the extremely temperate weather.
To summarise: Here we have King Arthur on an expedition to specifically penetrate the circular mountain range surrounding the North Pole, where there are cities. Five generations later, eight descendants of Arthur’s men returned to Norway. Two of the eight were priests. One of the priests states that four years earlier a group of people visited them in the Northern Isles, one of whom was an English Minorite Monk from Oxford who was a good astronomer and had swapped his astrolabe with this priest for a “Testament”. This monk then set off on his own to explore the northern regions. He described all the wonders of the islands in a book that he called the
Inventio Fortunata and at some point gave it to the King of England who then sent the monk to do monkey-business on his behalf five times.
Preiddeu Annwfn (Edit 21/02/2020 begins)
This is a poem from The Book of Taliesin that was first written down in the ninth century, but has been shown to date from the sixth century. In this poem Arthur and his heroes journey through wild waters to a strange and frozen land to rescue Gweir
and to find a cauldron.
The title, 'Preiddeu Annwfn', means ‘The Raid on Annwfn’, although most scholars translate it as ‘The Spoils of Annwfn’. The Avalon of later Arthurian legends was known as
Annwn or Annwfn to the earlier Celts. The word is traditionally translated "
otherworld." Alternative translations are
"un-world," "very-deep," and "extreme world." It’s a place that you can sail to by ship and also a place you can rule over or rather be a guardian of – given the right circumstances. It is not a Celtic "underworld," per se and has only been associated with Hell due to later Christian influences.
Within the context of this post, I am taking it as another regerence to the ‘Hyperborean’ region at the North Pole. [This links in I think with the reason why the ‘Thule Society’ in Germany took its name from this legendary land.]
Annwfn is generally associated with hills mountains and islands. In the poem we are told that it’s a series of islands to which
King Arthur and his men journey in search of a magic cauldron and to free Gweir from his imprisonment in chains. Although the poem mentions eight different caers (fortresses or castles), most ‘scholars’ insist that the action takes place in one location with eight different names. This is due to the insistence that this one location is Lundy, a small island off the coast of Cornwall in the Bristol Channel. In Welsh it is known as Ynys Weir or Wair, "Gweir's Island”. However, this would make sense if it was called Gweir’s Prison rather than his Island, but what makes even more sense is that
Gweir is the name of the celtic sun god [Phoebus Apollo?] and no doubt from some point it probably looks like the sun sets on the island at a certain time of year.
So, in the poem Gweir has been imprisoned within Caer Sidi (
Mound Fortress or Fortress of the fairy-folk - possibly the ‘Skraelinger’ mentioned in Mercator’s Polar Insert map), where he is bound in chains and ‘singing woefully’ before the treasure or spoils of Annvn, which also seems to be imprisoned along with him. This situation is due to the actions of Pwyll and Pryderi. In a tale from the First Branch of The Mabinogi,
Pwyll exchanges place and shape with Arawn, who is the king of Annwn. Pryderi was Pwyll’s son, who through some foolishness plunged the land (Dyfed) into chaos turning it into a wasteland where all the people and livestock disappeared in mist, except for his closest relatives. So, by all accounts, Pryderi was a bit of a disaster and his father had also been up to no good when he obtained his mother Rhiannon’s hand in marriage by deception and murder. It’s no surprise then that these two had done something to cause the imprisonment of the sun god, Gweir and the treasures of Annwn.
This imprisonment and binding in chains sounds like an allegory for there being no sun for an extended period – chaining it up would stop it from rising. In other words, darkness and cold descended upon the land thanks to something that Pwyll and Pryderi had done by virtue of the position they held as rulers or guardians of Annwn.
At the end of each verse in the poem there is a repetition of the same information whereby we are told that three shiploads of ‘Prydwen’ (Arthur’s ship) set sail or went into the fortresses, but only seven returned. As a unit of measure a ‘Prydwen’ is not of much use to us these days. Perhaps there is something lost in translation and maybe a ‘shipload of Prydwen’ is simply a squadron of ships of which seven ships returned. If we take it at face value, then it seems ludicrous that Arthur had just one ship and had to make three separate journeys to ferry his men to their destination.
The second verse speaks of Caer Pedryvan or the Four-Peaked Fortress, ‘four its revolutions’, in the Isle of The Strong Door. This is reminiscent of Mercator’s Polar Insert: “
Top right identifies the islands as the Bargu (Bargos) islands. A later version claims that they rotate around the pole”. The verse goes on to discuss
the Cauldron of the Ruler of Annwn.
In Celtic lore the cauldron is the symbol of the Otherworld in that it symbolises the womb of the Great Goddess whereby everything is born out of it and returns to it. [ Could it symbolise Novae as well?] It is also a symbol of rebirth, the hearth, of abundance and of well being. Ancient Celtic tales tell of cauldrons that no one ever went away from hungry and cauldrons that, when the dead were thrown into them, would bring them back to life. The cauldron is common to many Celtic stories and they are described as great treasures with magical powers.
In the Celtic tradition,
Bran is one of the
father-figure gods and a giant. It is told that when he lay down over a river, an army could march across him. He is also
king of the otherworld/underworld (i.e. the ruler of Annwn
), and watches over the treasures of ‘Don’, the Mother Goddess (Danu in the Irish tradition). These treasures are the animals, plants, insects, birds and the fabric of life itself of the Earth. So Bran is a king in the Celtic sense in that he was
guardian to and of the goddess. He is also the god of Bards. Bran is associated with Avalon/Annvn, and one of the places his head is said to be buried is there.
What’s intended by showing that the cauldron of the Ruler of Annvn is imprisoned with the sun god Gweir is that the fabric of life itself - the treasures of the Mother goddess – are no longer under the guardian’s control.
The cauldron of the guardian of Annwn is described as being the same one from which the first word was spoken (i.e.creation) when it was gently warmed by the breath of nine maidens.
‘The Nine Maidens’ is another universal symbol and can be found in many cultures. For example, the Greek tale in which the nine Muses gave inspiration to humans. They are generally known as being island dwellers. The poet Taliesin himself was gifted by the nine maidens when three drops of ‘the life force’ or ‘inspiration’ accidentally fell on his hand as he was stirring their cauldron. In modern Arthurian material, the best known of these groups are the Nine Sorceresses, Morgan and her sisters, who live on the Isle of Avalon and are both seeresses and healers.
Pomponius Mela (c.43 AD) makes mention of a group of nine sorceresses or holy women who were known to
inhabit an island in the west. “In the Brittanic Sea, opposite the coast of the Ossismi, the isle of Sena (Sein) belongs to a Gallic divinity and is famous for its oracle, whose priestesses, sanctified by perpetual virginity are reportedly nine in number” He further says “They call the priestesses Gallisenae and think that because they have been endowed with unique powers, they stir up the seas and winds by their magic charms,
that they turn into whatever animals they want, that they cure what is incurable among other peoples, that they know and predict the future, but that it is not revealed except to sea-voyagers and then only to those travelling to consult them.” In the Celtic tradition animals bridge the natural and supernatural worlds, acting as a connection which allows shape-shifting and accounts for ‘familiars’.
In the poem there then follows a difficult section that nobody understands very well. It seems that the cauldron was
recovered by means of a magical sword and left in the hands of ‘
Leminawc’, who may be Arthur himself. As a result of this
the lamps leading the way to the gates of hell were lit. Caer Vedwyd (Castle of the Perfect Ones) is mentioned. Undaunted, they fight on to the next verse.
Overcoming a jet black turbulent sea, they reach Caer Rigor (Frozen Castle, Fortress of Hardness). Next up is Caer Wydyr (The Glass Fortress) where either six thousand or sixty men stood upon the walls and they were difficult to communicate with. Caer Golud (Fortress of Hindrance) is also mentioned.
Verses five and six are difficult. Taliesin seems to be ‘ranting’ against ignorance. There is mention of Caer Vandwy (Castle on High, Fortress of God's Peak) and Caer Ochren (Castle of Shelving Sides [entered from a slope], Fortress of Enclosedness [not a real word]).
The final verse is quite clearly a rant against monks who learn only by rote from their superiors, who in turn no nothing of the real world. The poem ends with the enigmatic phrase “crist am gwadawl”, which probably either means ‘Christ be my saviour’ or ‘Christ be my follower’. Personally I think he meant the latter.
Coincidentally, on the subject of monks, the
'Navigation of St. Brendan' is one of the most proliferate of surviving medieval texts, although this character was supposedly concurrent with Taliesin. Ostensibly, it’s the tale of the abbot, St. Brendan, it tells of his adventures with a crew of monks exploring the isle of promise (Avalon/Annwn) in that mysterious Celtic Otherworld reached over western seas. It's hard to overestimate its popularity over the years. There are at least 116 surviving Latin manuscripts as well as versions in Middle English, German, French, Italian, Flemish, Norse and Provencal. [Please note: The Book of Taliesin never got such a wide circulation.]
St. Brendan was born around the end of the 5th Century in Clonfert, France, where he also died. His ashes were buried in Notre-Dame-d’Aynès. The book’s first draft is claimed to be between the 7th and the 8th Centuries. It describes a seven year voyage to ‘Paradise’ full of events and strange encounters: Island by high cliffs, Island of the giant sheep, the great whale, the Paradise of Birds, the elders of the community of Saint Albeo, Island of blacksmiths (the Hell), Judas Iscariot, the hermit Paul (episodes where one can find similarities with Imram, the Apocalypse or medieval texts describing voyages to the Holy Land, or even with the Aeneid, the Odyssey or Germanic mythology)… Chapters 36 and 37 again describe the Island of the Blessed, while chapter 38 tells of the return home and the serene death of the Saint.
Source
There is little doubt that the ‘Navigation of St. Brendan' is catholic propaganda and 99% fiction. However, could it include some information from the
Inventio Fortunata? As we shall see, there is evidence to suggest that it does.
Sources for edited section:
Annwfn
Cauldron
Cauldron - The Witchipedia
https://thepaganandthepen.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/ogham-g-gort-ivy/ç
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_maidens_(mythology)
Navigation of St. Brendan, from Lundy Isle of Avalon by Mystic Realms
Perlesvaus is said to be a continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' unfinished Perceval, the Story of the Grail. The anonymous author of the story claims that the original Latin text was taken from the Isle of Avalon, from a holy religious house which stands at the head of the Lands Adventurous, where lies King Arthur and his Queen, by the testimony of the worthy religious men who dwell there, and who have the whole story, true from beginning to end. The Isle of Avalon is also referred to as The
Fortunate Isle (
Isla Fortunata). So, could Inventio Fortunata also mean
the Discovery of Avalon? [
People in the ancient world also called the Canary Islands the Fortunate Islands!]
6. On the trail of the Inventio Fortunata
Peter Heylyn recounts the
Inventio Fortunata polar geography as fact in the fourth book of his ‘
Cosmographie’ in Four Books (London, 1652).
We know from others involved with the book that it contained information down to 18° N. The
Inventio Fortunata is mentioned by Christopher Columbus' son, Fernando, and the 16th century historian [Bartolomé de] Las Casas. Both wrote that
Inventio Fortunatae contained astonishing information about two floating islands far to the west on approximately the same latitude as the Cape Verde islands (18 degrees north) and that Columbus was aware of this information."
“
A esto decía Cristóbal Colon, que podrían ser aquellos islas de las que tracta Plinieo en su ‘Natural Historia,' que hacia la parte del Septentrión, socaba la mar algunas arboledas de la tierra que tienen tan grandes raíces que las lleva como balsas sobre el agua que desde lejos parecen islas. Ayuda a esto lo que dice Seneca en el libro III de 'Los Naturales.' que hay natura de piedras tan esponjosas y livianas, que hacen dellas en la India unas como islas que van nadando por el agua, y de esta manera debían de ser las que dicen Sant Brandan, en cuya historia diz que se lee que fueron vistas muchas islas de la mar de las islas Cabo Verde o de las Azores, que siempre ardian y debían de ser como las que arriba se han dicho: de lo mismo se hacen mencion en el libro llamado Inventio Fortunata.” Historias de las Indias, Documentos Ineditos.
“Christopher Columbus spoke of this: that the islands referred to by Pliny, in his ‘Natural History’, could be those of the far north, where the sea excavates wooded areas near the shoreline whose roots are so big that they form rafts and the sea pushes them out over the water so that from far away they appear to be islands swimming across the water. They must also be the same as those spoken of by Saint Brandan in his story, whereby many islands were seen in the seas of Capo Verde and the Azores that always burn and must be like the ones referred to above: the same is mentioned in the book Inventio Fortunata” Bartholomé de las Casas in his ‘Historia de las Indias’ (1570)
These floating and burning Islands are not mentioned in the Mercator/Cnoyens account, but they are apparently mentioned in ‘The Navigation of
Saint Brendan’.
According to a review of multiple sources (Columbus' son Fernando, Bartolomé de las Casas, and an unknown sailor) by the French author, Kare Prytz, Columbus may have read the book and he may have had a copy on his first voyage:
"As a young adult Columbus happened upon something that completely changed his life: A book about America. A sailor who went with him on the first three voyages to the New World and who later ended up in Turkish imprisonment, said that it was a coincidence that Columbus came upon the book - and that in it he found all the information he needed for his famous voyage to the West Indies." Prytz (1991) p. 97
“
The Admiral's Book” is mentioned by Columbus himself in his diary - for instance during the voyage entries from September 25, October 3, and October 10 of 1492. At this time [so far as anyone knows]
there was only one book in existence about America, and that was Inventio Fortunatae," Prytz (1991) p. 97
The link between Columbus and the
Inventio Fortunata been lost because Columbus’ biography by his son, Fernando, "
has been ‘edited’ (i.e.censored) by translators. Important information about Columbus' knowledge of the far north and the fact that he read Inventio Fortunatae have been removed. So when in doubt, it is necessary to go back to the first edition of 1537." (Prytz).
“
Et Inventio Fortunato narra, sarsi mentiono de duie altre isole, volte all'occidente, & piu Australi, che le Isole de Capo verde; le quali vanno sopra l’acqua nutando."
“
As the Inventio Fortunata tells, there is mention of two other islands, far to the west, and more south than the Cape Verde islands, that go swimming over the water.“ (Historie del S.D. Fernando Colombo'' 1571, c.viii.)
The Turkish Admiral
Piri Reis [S
ee Session October 1998: "A: But there are always connections, both hither and yon. Tricky those Rosicrucians, tricky. And what of Piri Reis?" ] mentioned an unknown Spanish sailor who was with Columbus on three voyages and was captured by Reis' uncle. Reis wrote an account of the sailor on his famous 1513 world map. Excerpt:
"
For instance, a book fell into the hands of the said Colombo, and he found it said in this book that at the end of the Western Sea [Atlantic] that is, on its western side, there were coasts and islands and all kinds of metals and also precious stones. The above-mentioned, having studied this book thoroughly,... The late Gazi Kemal had a Spanish slave. The above-mentioned slave said to Kemal Reis, he had been three times to that land with Colombo. ...These [Spaniards] were pleased and gave them glass beads. It appears that he [Columbus] had read-in the book that in that region glass beads were valued. Seeing the beads they brought still more fish. These [Spaniards] always gave them glass beads…"
In 1526
Piri Reis produced his "Bahriye", a famous illustrated sea atlas of the world. Here he mentioned Columbus' book again and suggested "on hearsay" that it was from classical times.
America was known of in classical times but documentary evidence is slim. The only pre-modern book that we know of concerning America is
Inventio Fortunata. It was not well-known in Europe and probably unknown to the Turks. There is therefore, a strong possibility that
the book Piri Reis mentioned was the Inventio Fortunata.
7. A dodgy Merchant Adventurer lurking in the shadows.
In 1956 a letter referring to the existence of the
Inventio Fortunata was found in the
Archivo General de Simancas (Spain). It was written in Spain during the winter of 1497–98 by the Bristol merchant John or Johan Day, alias Hugh Say of London (of whom much more later), to "The Most Magnificent And Most Worthy Lord - The Lord Grand Admiral". John Day writes, "...Your Lordship's servant brought me your letter. I have seen its contents and I would be most desirous and most happy to serve you. I do not find the book
Inventio Fortunata, and I thought that I (or he) was bringing it with my things, and I am very sorry not [to] find it because I wanted very much to serve you. I am sending the other book of
Marco Polo and a copy of the land which has been found [by
John Cabot (Newfoundland)]…" The letter also contains a great deal of detailed information regarding John Cabot’s voyages of discovery.
Curiously there is no date on the letter nor any clear indication as to exactly who it was written too. Most sources claim it was written to Columbus. On May 30, 1498, i.e. the spring following the letter, Columbus left Sanlúcar, Spain with six ships for his third trip to the New World. He was accompanied by Bartolomé de Las Casas. We can assume that they were also accompanied by the
Inventio Fortunata as it seems that it went with them on all of Columbus’ voyages, which makes it very odd that the ‘Lord Grand Admiral’ would be asking this John Day character to get him a copy.
John or Johan Day, or rather Hugh Say of Bristol, was a member of England’s Merchant Company [
The Merchant Adventurers], which was even more powerful than Bristol’s local Society of Merchant Adventurers; they controlled all of England’s textile industry.
The same organisation later sponsored the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. [<
sound of alarm bells ringing>]
Source
The English formed the largest ex-patriot merchant community in Seville’s port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cadíz), after the Genoese. Day was associated with the
di Nigri family who employed Columbus in the 1470s. The internet stubbornly refuses to yield any information on this family. In 1470 he was in Savona, Italy. The first confirmed record of
Columbus being at sea is also dated to 1470 when he was hired to serve on the Genoese warship of René d’Anjou.
John Day/Hugh Say did business with
Francisco Pinelo, the Genoese royal Treasurer of Castile, and Pinelo’s nephew, Barnardo Pinelo, the treasurer of the Indies enterprise in Seville. Say was related by marriage to
Lord Mountjoy, Henry VII’s Master of the Mint. In 1494, he was granted membership in the Bristol staple as “John Day of London, merchant.” Say was also related by marriage to some of the Bristol merchants who sponsored Cabot, and with Icelandic merchants in Bristol [maybe one and the same].
His family supported the Yorkists against Henry VII, which may explain his alias. He wasn’t a very nice person, judging by two Chancery petitions taken out against him for what amounts to fraud c. 1502.
Source
So this unsavoury character, if he’s even real, was incredibly well connected with all of the various elements involved in the rediscovery of the New World. It seems reasonable to assume that if he owned or was able to get a copy of the
Inventio Fortunata, that John Cabot also used it for his voyages.
In fact it could be that the Inventio Fortunata was the source and inspiration for all of the so-called voyages of discovery to the New World during the Middle Ages.
9. Paradise Lost
Traditions of a paradisaical, primeval land in the far north are universal. Often this sacred land is said to be located in the 'centre' or 'navel' of the earth. The northern paradise is also associated with a mountain, pillar or a tree from which four rivers emerge.
- The ancient British called it Avalon.
- The Indian Vedas call it "Paradesha" or "Aryavarsha", the land from which the Vedas came with Mount Meru at the centre.
- The Buddhists call it "Shambala", usually depicted as an eight-petalled lotus blossom.
- The Chinese know it as "Hsi Tien", the Western Paradise of Hsi Wang Mu, the Royal Mother of the West.
- The Russians knew it as "Belovodye" and "Janaidar".
- To the Christians and the Jews it’s the "Garden of Eden" with its fountain whence the four great rivers branch out to water the world (see Genesis 2:10-14).
- The Egyptians located their Ta Neter, or land of the gods, in the extreme north.
- The Eskimos have legends that they came from a fertile land of perpetual sunshine in the north.
- Greek mythology speaks of a mysterious northern yet ever-springlike land called Hyperborea ('beyond the north wind'), situated beyond the mountains – in some accounts situated under the north pole.
- For the Orphics, the island of Electris, the seat of the gods, lies under the polestar in the furthest waters of Tethys.
- The Mandean Gnostics believed that an ideal earth, an earth of light peopled by a divine race of superhumans, was situated in the north, separated from our world by a high mountain of ice.
- The name Thule is said to be of Greco-Roman origin and refers to the furthermost north location. It became popular in classical and medieval literature with the epithet ultima – Ultima Thule – even furthermoster. Pliny the Elder placed it at a six-day journey north of Britain on the fringes of the known world. A place where there is no night during the summer and no daylight during the winter. There are references to blue-painted people, and by the 12th century, they were given a nemesis – a tribe of very small people.
- Today there is an echo of these ancient traditions in the fact that children send notes to Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, in his 'wonderland' at the north pole, asking for gifts.
Theosophy: The first continent, the
Imperishable Sacred Land, surrounded and included the north pole and extended somewhat southwards from the pole in seven different zones, like the leaves of a lotus. These zones included Greenland, Spitzbergen, Sweden, Norway, and Siberia, together with other former land areas in the far north that have since been submerged. The central locality of the first continent was right at the north pole.
From
The Secret Doctrine:
“
Oriental tradition is ever referring to an unknown glacial, gloomy sea, and to a dark region, within which, nevertheless, are situated the Fortunate Islands, wherein bubbles, from the beginning of life on earth, the fountain of life. But the legend asserts, moreover, that a portion of the first dry island (continent), having detached itself from the main body, has remained, since then, beyond the mountains of Koh-Kaf, 'the stony girdle that surrounds the world.' A journey of seven months' duration will bring him who is possessed of 'Sulayman's ring' to that 'fountain,' if he keeps on journeying North straight before him as the bird flies. Journeying therefore from Persia straight north, will bring one along the sixtieth degree of longitude, holding to the west, to Novaya Zemlya; and from the Caucasus to the eternal ice beyond the Arctic circle would land one between 60 and 45 degrees of longitude, or between Novaya Zemlya and Spitzbergen.
“
Nevertheless, the wandering songsters of Persia and the Caucasus will maintain, to this day, that far beyond the snow-capped summits of Kap, or Caucasus, there is a great continent now concealed from all.”
Like the Egyptians and the Akkadians, the Indians conceived of two opposed polar mounts: the arctic Meru, known as Sumeru (su = good, beautiful), was the dwelling of the gods, and the Antarctic Meru, or Kumeru (ku = bad, miserable), was the dwelling of the demons.
The Avestan (Zoroastrian) term 'Airyanem Vaejah' (Pahlavi: Eran-Vej) designates the cradleland of the Aryan-Iranians, located not in any of the earth's seven climates, but at the centre of the central zone, the eighth climate. It was there that Yima, the 'first man', received the command to construct a vara, or enclosure, where the most highly developed humans, animals, and plants would be gathered in order to save them from
the deadly winter unleashed by the demonic powers so that they might one day refurbish a transfigured world.
10. Paradise Found
The Flatearther, Isidor of Seville (c. 630) said, "There lies another continent besides the three known ones, beyond the ocean, far up north, and there the sun is warmer than anywhere in our country [Spain]." (
Etymologies, Bk. 14, Chapter 5).
In 1721 Greenland was resettled, but the Viking colonists had disappeared. The Eskimos claimed that they had migrated further and further north, until one day a hunting party returned saying they had discovered a paradise in the north - a place the Eskimos had always known about, but generally stayed away from because
they believed it to be inhabited by evil spirits. However, the Vikings all promptly packed their bags, and singing songs, departed happily northward out over the ice and never returned. [Perhaps like the Germans in Antartica in 1944-45?]
In Greenland animals should migrate South for the winter, but in fact they all migrate North, and Northern winds in Greenland are actually warmer than Southern winds during winter. Early arctic explorers inferred that they were heading to a warm land in the north.
In 1904 Dr R.A. Harris of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey published an article explaining why he believed that there must be a large body of undiscovered land or shallow water in the polar basin northwest of Greenland.
Eskimos living on the northern fringes of the Arctic Ocean had a tradition that a landmass existed to the north. Out over the ice towards the northwest of Greenland ...is a land that is warm; is clothed in summer verdure the year around; is populated by fat caribou and musk-ox. It lies," they say even to this day, "in the direction of the coastal trail-route north." (December 1923 issue of Popular Science Monthly).
Land has been sighted out over the Arctic wastes by several different explorers from different directions at different times. It is a land that has been sighted always in the same direction, whether seen from Greenland, Alaska or northern Russia. The Russians called it
Sannikov land, and have seen it north of the New Siberian Islands.
Admiral Peary on his way to the pole in 1909 sighted land northwest of Cape Thomas Hubbard on the northwest coast of Ellesmere Island in Northern Canada. With him, Lt. Green, MacMillan and their Eskimos also saw it and even later went on an expedition out on the ice to find it and only turned back when their Eskimos claimed it only to be a mist. MacMillan swore it looked every bit like real land. [
We should also add Admiral Richard Byrd and his experiences at both poles.]
Admiral Peary did also and he named it
Crocker Land. Dr. Cook on his way to the pole in 1906 saw it also towards the northwest of his trek to the pole from Ellesmere Island and even took a picture of it. He named it
Bradley Land. Then from Harrison Bay on the north coast of Alaska, Captain Keenan sighted land also towards the northwest.
The Norwegian arctic explorer, Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, in his book, Farthest North, relates his observations of several anomalous phenomena on his Arctic expedition of 1893-94 in the ship, the Fram. To their surprise out on the ice pack, they found a remarkable number of birds of various kinds including snipe and seagulls, also foxes, walrus and polar bears that indicated they were in the proximity of land towards the north. While waiting out the winter, they took scientific measurements and observations. They found rock and large quantities of
mud and driftwood on some of the icebergs that indicated to Nansen that much of the
Arctic ice originates in a river, perhaps further to the north than they were then located -
in some uncharted land.