Oak King and Holly King

[Brenin]

I got into a bit of a debate about this, so I thought I would see what everyone here thought about it.

Is the legend of the Oak King and Holly King a celtic one?

[Lark]

Probably not.

Remember that the Celts did not have a written language. Everything was passed as oral lore up until the time that the Celts were Christianized.  At that point monks did copy down some of the legends and stories, but these are few in number.  None of the stories that survive contain any mention of any sort of Oak King/Holly King myth. 

We don't even know much about the actual religion of the Celts.  However, there is some indication that the Celts celebrated the four cross-quarters of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnassad, and Samhain.  There is nothing to indicate that they celebrated the Solstices or Equinoxes.  Since the Oak King/Holly King myth is tied to the Solstices it seems unlikely that it originated with the Celts.

My personal guess is that the myth is of modern origin and neither ancient nor Celtic.

-Lark-