More news on the Quest

Those of you who have read my book The Wonderful History of the Sword in the Stone will know that I have identified the king Evelake mentioned in The Quest for the Holy Grail as an English rendition of the Welsh name Afallach which I translate as Mistletoe (literally the lash of the apple-tree) - the symbol of the Celtic God Lud.  Today I found another mention of him in an ancient life of the Celtic saint Carantoc or Carannog (associated with Cornwall and Crantock but Welsh-born in Ceredigion).  The life contains an encounter between Carantoc and King Arthur which is almost certainly an old Druid myth relating to the God rather than the King although it is possible that the reference of a grant of land to Carantoc's church does refer to the real King.  But what caught my eye was the genealogy listed for the saint  in which he is listed as  the son of Ceredig the King of Ceredigion who is son of Cunedda, son of Ederyn, son of Padarn peis Rudawg, son of Tegid, son of Kain, son of Gwrgain, son of Doli, son of Gwrdoli, son of Dwfri, son of Gwrddofri, son of Amguoloid, son of Enwerydd, son of Onwedd, son of Dwfr, son of Brithgwern son of Owain, son of Afallach, son of Canalech, son of Beli and his mother was Anna who they say was a cousin [kinswoman/descendant] of the Virgin Mary.

The first section is the real genealogy and ancestry of Carantoc but in the section in bold italics we are into the realms of a mythical/religious past.  I had Owain down as a son of Bran (a water god) because that is how he is referred to in The Quest for the Holy Grail but here he is identified as the son of Lud/Afallach who is a sun/sky god. I have no idea who Canalech is, I have never come across this name before but Beli is one of the Trinity of Gods (jointly with his wife Don) and is the God who is the owner of the Sword of Truth, the judge of sinners.  What is also interesting from the point of view of my thesis that the Christian and Druid churches merged in the mid-fifth century is the fact that Carantoc's genealogy links him mythically not only with the Druid gods but also with the Christian church through his supposed descent through his mother from the Virgin Mary.  This clearly indicates the dual nature of the early Celtic Church so its quite an exciting discovery.