When he pleased he could make himself as tall as the tallest tree in the wood.  And when it rained hardest, whatever he carried remained dry above and below his hand to the distance of a handbreadth, so great was his natural heat.  When it was coldest he was as glowing fuel to his companions."[442] This almost exactly resembles Cuchulainn’s aspect in his battle-fury.  In a curious poem Gwenhyvar (Guinevere) extols his prowess as a warrior above that of Arthur, and in Kulhwych and elsewhere there is enmity between the two.[443] This may point to Kei’s having been a god of tribes hostile to those of whom Arthur was hero.

Mabon, one of Arthur’s heroes in Kulhwych and the Dream of Rhonabwy, whose name, from mab (map), means “a youth,” may be one with the god Maponos equated with Apollo in Britain and Gaul, perhaps as a god of healing springs.[444] His mother’s name, Modron, is a local form of Matrona, a river-goddess and probably one of the mother-goddesses as her name implies.  In the Triads Mabon is one of the three eminent prisoners of Prydein.  To obtain his help in hunting the magic boar his prison must be found, and this is done by animals, in accordance with a Maerchen formula, while the words spoken by them show the immense duration of his imprisonment—­perhaps a hint of his immortality.[445] But he was also said to have died and been buried at Nantlle,[446] which, like Gloucester, the place of his prison, may have been a site of his widely extended cult.[447]

* * * * *

Taken as a whole the various gods and heroes of the Brythons, so far as they are known to us, just as they resemble the Irish divinities in having been later regarded as mortals, magicians, and fairies, so they resemble them in their functions, dimly as these are perceived.  They are associated with Elysium, they are lords of fertility and growth, of the sea, of the arts of culture and of war.  The prominent position of certain goddesses may point to what has already been discovered of them in Gaul and Ireland—­their pre-eminence and independence.  But, like the divinities of Gaul and Ireland, those of Wales were mainly local in character, and only in a few cases attained a wider popularity and cult.

Certain British gods mentioned on inscriptions may be identified with some of those just considered—­Nodons with Nudd or Lludd, Belenos with Belinus or Beli, Maponos with Mabon, Taranos (in continental inscriptions only), with a Taran mentioned in Kulhwych.[448] Others are referred to in classical writings—­Andrasta, a goddess of victory, to whom Boudicca prayed;[449] Sul, a goddess of hot springs, equated with Minerva at Bath.[450] Inscriptions also mention Epona, the horse-goddess; Brigantia, perhaps a form of Brigit; Belisama (the Mersey in Ptolemy),[451] a goddess in Gaulish inscriptions.  Others refer to the group goddesses, the Matres.  Some gods are equated