The Ninth Wave

[kln@a.crl.com]

Having done some reading on this topic, I can throw out a few tidbits for those 
who want to search further.  The number nine was sacred to the Celts, so you 
find all kinds of fascinating bits in their mythology such as the god Heimdall 
who had nine mothers, nine goddesses of this and that, nine sacred trees, nine 
perfect apples, and so on.  

There are various bits of information floating about on the Ninth Wave, "tinn 
mohr" I believe is the Celtic name for it.  It is sometimes referred to as the 
king or queen of waves, the wave of rebirth, and a few other things I can't 
remember off the top of my head -- but the implication is that it is of immense 
size and endowed with mystical power.

Some of the stories convey the idea that the land of youth lies beyond the ninth 
wave -- which was the barrier between the living and the dead.  When you died 
you went to the land of youth in the West and which corresponds in some ways to 
the mystical isle of Avalon. Some people would be reborn for various reasons, 
brought back to the world on the Ninth Wave, which is where Tennyson got the 
idea he uses in his poem to such magnificent effect -- at Merlin's word the baby 
Arthur is carried to land on the Ninth Wave to become the future great leader.  

Of course the implication is that this has happened before, and will happen 
again in a time of need -- Arthur will be sent from the land of youth to unite 
the land.  And anyone who has read the Arthurian texts will be familiar with the 
idea of the land and sea themselves sanctioning Arthur's kingship.  The concept 
of the king's body being the metaphorical body of the country was a powerful one 
to our predecessors.  Tennyson uses the image of the Ninth Wave to tap into the 
emotional pull of that metaphor.

There are many references to the Ninth Wave in Robert Graves' brilliant, 
strange, and controversial book "The White Goddess", as well as the hundreds of 
new books that have appeared in the past few years on Celtic mythology.  They 
are of variable quality, but many are well-researched and worth having a look 
at.

Happy reading, Karen  kln@a.crl.com