Geas
Encyclopedia
- for the missionary in Burma see George J. GeisGeorge J. GeisThe Reverend George J. Geis was an American Baptist minister and anthropologist of German descent, best known for his missionary work in northeastern Burma...
In Irish mythology
Irish mythology
The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...
and folklore, a geis (Irish pronunciation: '; ˈɡɛʃ; plural geasa) is an idiosyncratic taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
, whether of obligation or prohibition, similar to being under a vow
Vow
A vow is a promise or oath.-Marriage vows:Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ceremony. Marriage customs have developed over history and keep changing as human society develops...
or spell. The Scottish Gaelic spelling "geas" is also seen.
Geasa in Irish Mythology
A geis can be compared with a curseCurse
A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...
or, paradoxically, a gift. If someone under a geis violates the associated taboo, the infractor will suffer dishonor or even death. On the other hand, the observing of one's geasa is believed to bring power. Often it is women who place geasa upon men. In some cases the woman turns out to be a goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
or other sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
figure.
The geis is often a key device in hero tales, such as that of Cúchulainn
Cúchulainn
Cú Chulainn or Cúchulainn , and sometimes known in English as Cuhullin , is an Irish mythological hero who appears in the stories of the Ulster Cycle, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore...
in Irish mythology
Irish mythology
The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branch and the Historical Cycle. There are...
. Traditionally, the doom of heroes comes about due to their violation of their geis, either by accident, or by having multiple geasa and then being placed in a position where they have no option but to violate one geis in order to maintain another. For instance, Cúchulainn has a geis to never eat dog meat, and he is also bound by a geis to eat any food offered to him by a woman. When a hag
Hag
A hag is a wizened old woman, or a kind of fairy or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales such as Hansel and Gretel. Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as the Morrígan or...
offers him dog meat, he has no way to emerge from the situation unscathed; this leads to his death.
A beneficial geis might involve a prophecy
Prophecy
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
that a person would die in a particular way; the particulars of their death in the vision might be so bizarre that the person could then avoid their fate for many years.
Welsh mythology
There is a considerable similarity between geasa (which are a phenomenon of GaelicGaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
mythology) and the foretold deaths of heroes in Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology, the remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons, has come down to us in much altered form in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin....
. This is not surprising given the close origins of many of the variants of Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...
.
For example, the Welsh hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes
Lleu Llaw Gyffes
Lleu Llaw Gyffes is a hero of Welsh mythology. He appears most prominently in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, the tale of Math fab Mathonwy, which tells the tale of his birth, his marriage, his death, his resurrection and his accession to the throne of Gwynedd...
(in one version of his story) was destined to die neither "during the day or night, nor indoors or outdoors, neither riding nor walking, not clothed and not naked, nor by any weapon lawfully made." He was safe until his wife, Blodeuwedd
Blodeuwedd
Blodeuwedd or Blodeuedd, , is the wife of Lleu Llaw Gyffes in Welsh mythology, made from the flowers of broom, meadowsweet and the oak by the magicians Math and Gwydion, and is a central figure in the fourth branch of the Mabinogi.-Role in Welsh tradition:The...
, learning of these foretold conditions, convinced him to show her how he could theoretically be stepping out of a river onto a riverbank sheltered by a roof and put one foot on a goat, and so on, thus enabling the conditions that allowed him to be killed.
Parallels English literature
Prohibitions and taboos similar to geasa are also found in more recent English literatureEnglish literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
, though they are not described as geasa in those texts. For example, in William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, Macbeth believes himself safe because "no man of woman born shall harm Macbeth." Macduff, an enemy, was "from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd" (i.e., born by Caesarean section) and was therefore not "of woman born".
Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith
Clark Ashton Smith was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne...
once included the term in his short story The Seven Geases, in which a foolish mortal wanders too close to a sorcerer's home and is punished with a geas to serve as offering to an Elder God, who subsequently geases him into reaching for another destination and so on, until the man is forced through seven different geases and ultimately meets his end.
In a 1964 short fantasy story "A case of Identity" by Randall Garrett
Randall Garrett
Randall Garrett was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was a prolific contributor to Astounding and other science fiction magazines of the 1950s and 1960s...
, one of the characters, a homicidal psychopath by nature, is mentally restrained by a spell called geas "which forces him to limit his activities to those which are not dangerous to his fellow man".
In popular culture
There is a spell in the popular role-playing gameRole-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
called geas/quest, which compels the subject to pursue a certain objective.
In The Jennifer Morgue
The Jennifer Morgue
The Jennifer Morgue is the second collection of stories by Charles Stross featuring Bob Howard, containing the title novel The Jennifer Morgue, the short story "Pimpf", and an essay titled "The Golden Age of Spying"...
by Charles Stross
Charles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
, the term geas is used to describe spells cast in which the subjects must conform to a certain narrative archetype.
In the novel Halo: Cryptum
Halo: Cryptum
Halo: Cryptum is a science fiction novel by Greg Bear, set in the Halo universe. The book released on January 4, 2011, and is the eighth Halo novel, following 2009s Halo: Evolutions, an anthology written by various writers creating short stories.Set approximately 100,000 years before the events of...
, the term geas is used to describe a Forerunner method of programming genetic memories or commands into a living creature. Two humans had a geas programmed into their DNA in which they had to sing a song previously unknown to them in order to activate a Forerunner security program.
Lelouch Lamperouge
Lelouch Lamperouge
is the protagonist and antihero of the Sunrise anime series Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Lamperouge is his assumed surname, while his real name is , son of the 98th Britannian Emperor. His seiyū is Jun Fukuyama, and his child self is voiced by Sayaka Ohara...
, the main protagonist of the japanese animation Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion possesses a power (referred to as a "Geass", a corruption of "geas") that allows him to forcibly compel any person with whom he can make eye contact to obey a command he issues - in essence placing that person under a geis themselves. However, he cannot imbue someone with multiple geis. Others possess abilities similar to those spoken of in myth, as well. For example, one character possess the ability to make someone love them, similar to the one in the tale of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne
Diarmuid Ua Duibhne
Diarmuid Ua Duibhne or Diarmid O'Dyna is a son of Donn and a warrior of the Fianna in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. He is most famous as the lover of Gráinne, the intended wife of Fianna leader Fionn mac Cumhaill in The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne...
.
In Shining the Holy Ark
Shining the Holy Ark
is a first person role-playing game released for the Sega Saturn. It is a part of Sega's Shining series of video games.- Story :Three mercenaries - Arthur, Melody, and Forte - are hired by the King of Enrich to hunt down and capture a renegade ninja by the name of Rodi. The group pursues Rodi to...
, there is a skeleton in Enrich Dungeon that describes his minding of the GOLD KEY as a "geas."
In the role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
Scion
Scion
Scion may refer to:*In kinship, a descendant , a son or daughter*Scion , a detached shoot or twig containing buds from a woody plant which is grafted onto the stock...
geas are.described in a supplement regarding the Tuatha de Danaan as a way to enhance a hero's powers in exchange for accepting the obligation of a taboo.
In the Harry Potter series, the Unbreakable Vow is similar to a Geis in consequences of violation of the pact.
See also
- Irish mythology in popular cultureIrish mythology in popular culture- Badb :*Badb, along with Nemain, and Macha, appear as the Morrigan in Christopher Moore's book A Dirty Job.*Badb, Morrigan, Macha and Nemain are mentioned by Conan the Barbarian in Robert E...
- TyngedTyngedA tynged is the Welsh equivalent of the Irish geis, the most famous of which were those that Arianrhod placed on her son Lleu Llaw Gyffes in the fourth of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, the Mabinogi of Math fab Mathonwy....
- Code Geass
- Shining the Holy ArkShining the Holy Arkis a first person role-playing game released for the Sega Saturn. It is a part of Sega's Shining series of video games.- Story :Three mercenaries - Arthur, Melody, and Forte - are hired by the King of Enrich to hunt down and capture a renegade ninja by the name of Rodi. The group pursues Rodi to...