The Scythian Origin Myth, the Four Hallows, the Grail Runes and the Indo-European Caste System

Over the years I have from time to time discussed the Indo-European pagan origins of the grail or graal mythos and how this is rooted in pre-Christian Celtic religion and reflected in the last three or possibly last four rune staves and names. I have also referred to the Scythian connection in the past which I first encountered in Alu An Advanced Guide to Operative Runology by Edred Thorsson (2012, Weiser Books). Edred devotes an appendix in his book to discussing the grail runes (Appendix C Grail Mythos in Old English Runes?)

It would appear that according to Herodotus, writing in The Histories the ancestor of the Scythians was called Targitaos, the son of Zeus (the Greek name for the equivalent Scythian deity) and the daughter of the river god Borysthenes (the Greek name for the Dnieper). He in turn had three sons, Lipoxais, Arpoxais and his youngest Colaxais. These three sons fathered their own tribes. This origin myth bears some similarity to the Germanic origins myth referred to by Tacitus in his Germania. Mannus, the son of the 'earth born god' Tuisto fathered three sons who were the ancestors of the tribal confederations of the Ingaevones, Herminones and the Istvaeones. It is of course possible that these myths are a later survival of an original Proto-Indo-European origins myth.

An alternative view of these three sons is that they are the fathers of three castes rather than tribes. Only the ruling caste, the Skolotoi (Royal Scythians) who were descended from Colaxais worshiped the deity Thagimasadas (identified by Herodotus as the equivalent of Poseidon). This reminds me of the Germanic caste system myth in the Rigsthula of the Poetic Edda. It is the third and youngest caste, Jarl that bears the first Germanic king and this is represented by Kon, the youngest son of Jarl. Likewise Odin has a special relationship with the Jarl caste and it is my contention that the god referred to as Rig is in fact Odin, not Heimdall as this otherwise would not make a great deal of sense. I have discussed this elsewhere on my blogs and do not intend to repeat the arguments in favour of that theory here.

Herodotus goes on to relate that four gold implements fell from the sky to the sons of Targitaos, a plough, yoke, cup and a battle-axe. Dumezil interpreted these as symbols of the Indo-European caste system. The fact that these symbols appeared before the three progenitors of the Scythian castes is significant in my opinion. Only Colaxais was able to touch these gold implements without them bursting into fire and thus his descendants became the guardians of them. Quite obviously the plough and yoke became symbols of the producer or farmer caste. The battle-axe symbolised the warrior (and thus noble) caste whilst the cup represented the priestly one.

At this point I just wish to clarify that the Scythians are regarded as an Indo-European people of Iranian origins. This has been concluded via a study of  the genetics of ancient bodily remains, anthropological descriptions by classical authors, their language (Scythian, a branch of Eastern Iranian), culture and religion. Genetic analysis of six Kurgan warriors indicates that they were carriers of the R1b1a1a2 or R-M629 haplotype which is very common in western Europe and reaches its greatest intensity of 92.3% in Wales. Various classical writers describe the Scythians as having red or fair-hair, being of light skin and having grey or blue eyes and being tall in stature. These physical characteristics closely match those of the Germanic and Celtic peoples and no doubt point to a common distant origin.


The religion of the Scythians appears to have been derived from early primitive Iranian pre-Zoroastrian religion and a number of their deities have been identified. One of their primary deities whose name is unknown corresponds closely to the Greek Ares. As the Scythians were a war-like people this should not surprise us!

In recent years scholars have begun to reassess the King Arthur and grail legends in the light of Scythian history and mythology. Notable examples of this include From Scythia to Camelot: Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table and the Holy Grail (Arthurian Characters and Themes) by C. Scott Littleton and Linda A. Malcor (2000, Routledge) and Arthur the Dragon King. Man and Myth Reassessed by Howard Reid (2001, Headline Book Publishing).

Returning to the issue of the grail legend Edred Thorsson makes the argument in his afore-mentioned book that the symbols of the grail are represented in the last three rune staves of the Anglo-Saxon or (more correctly) the Northumbrian runic futhorc. Calc symbolises the cup or chalice, Stan the stone and Gar the spear of Parsifal. Each of these three symbols, chalice, stone and spear are integral parts of the legend. In the version related in the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach it is the stone rather than the chalice which represents the grail. Wagner in his last work Parsifal emphasises the spear and the chalice. Like Eschenbach Heinrich von Ofterdingen in his Wartburgkrieg depicts the grail as a green stone that fell from the crown of Lucifer. For more interesting background information on this topic I recommend both of Otto Rahn's books translated into English:- Crusade Against the Grail: The Struggle Between the Cathars, the Templars and the Church of Rome and Lucifer's Court: A Heretic's Journey in Search of the Light Bringers (Inner Traditions, 2006 and 2008).

All of this raises the question as to why was the grail mythos encoded in the last three Northumbrian runes? Edred posits the theory that the ultimate origin for the grail runes is to be found in the stationing of Alans in Northumbria by the Roman Empire. With the withdrawal of Rome from Britannia in the early 5th century the Alans appear to have been an influential community in that region of the country. Edred points out that the Alans are of course related to the Scythians and would have been familiar with the legend related by Herodotus. He speculates that the grail runes may have a similar or related meaning. What is certain is that these runes find their parallels in the four hallows of the Celtic gods, the Tuatha De Danann in Irish mythology.

The four hallows are the Stone of Fal, the Spear of Lug, the Cauldron of the Dagda and the Sword of Nuada. It should be noted at this point that the rune which appears immediately before the three grail runes is Cweorth. Some students of the runes have speculated that the etymology and possibly the shape of the stave may indicate a sword and it is certainly worth bearing in mind but it is unfortunately not provable.

Edred further speculates that the three grail runes like the four gold Scythian implements may symbolise the tripartite Indo-European caste system. The spear rune Gar which is closely associated with Odin symbolising the warrior or noble caste, the cup or chalice the rune Calc, the priestly caste whilst Stan the stone rune symbolising the caste of producers. If Edred's theory is correct then we should apply the same interpretation to the four hallows. The Spear of Lugh (partially mythically cognate with Odin) and the Sword of Nuada (mythically cognate with Tyr) represent the warrior and noble caste. The Cauldron of the Dagda would symbolise the priestly caste whilst the Stone of Fal would of course relate to the producers. It is certainly a tempting theory.