White Rose of Avalon

Celtic

  • The Rhiannon and Guinevere Connection

    I have written about Guinevere’s connection to goddesses and historical figures before.    Today I want to focus on the connection between Guinevere and one of my favorite goddesses, Rhiannon!    Rhiannon is the Welsh Celtic goddess of sovereignty, horses, and a faerie queen.    Guinevere is the wife of Arthur and queen of Camelot…

  • Vivienne or Nimue: By Any Name the Enchantress of Merlin

    For this weeks’ Femme Fatale Friday I have chosen to take a brief look at the deadly aspect of Vivienne, or Nimue, the Lady of the Lake that became the undoing of Merlin!    No matter which of her many names you call her by, it is evident that in several versions of the Arthurian…

  • The Influence of the Mabinogion and Arthurian Legends

    For today’s post I would like to take a brief look at how the tales of the Mabinogion became influential to later tellings of Arthurian legends, inspired real monarchs (especially during the Wars of the Roses), and how those historical monarchs inspired more modern fantasy (namely Game of Thrones, or in book form A Song…

  • The Elizabeth Woodville and Guinevere Connection

    For today’s post I would like to discuss the connection between the legendary figure of Guinevere and the real queen Elizabeth Woodville!    This may seem a bit far fetched, but given the prevalence of Arthurian legends during the medieval period, many real royals would take inspiration from these legends.    Elizabeth Woodville’s daughter and…

  • The White Rabbit

    For today’s post, I would like to take a brief look at the figure of the White Rabbit from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.    This Victorian era fairytale is one of the most iconic children’s books to ever be published.   Alice entered Wonderland through falling down a rabbit hole after chasing…

  • Blessed Lughnasadh!

    Hello my lovely readers, as today is Lughnasadh,  I have decided to write a bit about this first natural holiday of the harvest!   There are three natural harvest holidays, the next two being the Autumnal Equinox, and then my favorite holiday, Samhain!   Lughnasadh is the ancient Irish name for today’s holiday, Lammas is…

  • Birds as Emblems of Goddesses

    For today’s post I have chosen to discuss the birds that are sacred to my four favorite goddesses!    These goddesses are Aphrodite (Venus), Freya, Rhiannon, and Blodeuwedd!   All of these goddesses have bird associations, that make birds sacred to them in some way. First I would like to look at Aphrodite.  The Greek…

  • Faeries of Dark and Light

    Faeries, the Fair Folk, the Wee Ones, the Fae, there are literally thousands of ways to name these magical beings.     There are just as many, if not more, species of faerie beings.    Today they are most often thought of in terms of sweet flower faeries and pixies (like Tinkerbell).    This is…

  • Five Welsh Celtic Goddesses

    For today’s post I want to look at five of the most important Welsh Celtic goddesses.    This list contains five goddesses that appear in the Mabinogion.   I have mentioned all of them before, two of them I have written about more than once!    Today will be a countdown of these goddesses that…

  • Guinevere as Arthurian Adulteress

    Welcome to the first ever Femme Fatale Friday here at  White Rose of Avalon!    For this first post in this themed Friday series I have chosen to discuss a figure I have talked about often on this site, Arthur’s wife Guinevere.    Today I want to specifically look at Guinevere’s role as an adulteress…