— QUOTATIONS OF "BRAN" IN CELTIC MYTHS AND LORE –

The character of Bran retains the quality and significance of ‘Strength’.

There are three Brans mentioned in Celtic mythologyical and legendary matter:
Bran,the famous hound of Finn Mc Cumhaill; Bran, Son of Febal, the Irish Hero allured by Mannanan, son of Lir, to visit the Isle of Women; and the britonic Bran‘The Blessed’, brother of Mannawyddan and the son of Llyr, of such a large size that no house could contain him, but he was beneficent and had magical treasures, chief among them was the Cauldron of Healing, his story is told in the welsh cycle of the Mabinogi.

In the alfabet pertaining to the trees and considered of druidical origin, the letter ‘F’, related to Bran keeps the fourth place, being the Alder tree referred to it.

Sacred for the belief of its ‘bleeding’ when cut down, the wood of this tree was used by ‘Bran the Blessed’ for the piles of a bridge he constructed across the Irish Sea in order to rescue his sister Branwen.

Because of its underwater durability it was used for such practicall things as watermill-wheels, canal lock-gates and milk pails.In the calendary derived from this "oracular alfabet" the Alder is related to the month March 18th through April 14th, this fourth month comprises the period on which the sun of Spring dries the floods of Winter; we must note that some celtic houses were raised over alder piles to prevent their insides from the floods.

The Alder was also honoured because of the variety of dyes obtained from this tree: red from its bark; green from its flowers; and brown from its twigs. On Welsh Triads, those ‘crimson stained heroes’ used alder dyes since it was also refered to as ‘ro-eim’ which means ‘that which redens the face’.

Also mentioned in the ossianic ‘Song of the Forest Trees’ as the ‘most fiery in battle’,we may associate the alder as ‘the tree of fire’, due to the power of fire to free the earth from water, and the branch of alder was related to Bran in the welsh poem Cad Godew -The Battle of the Trees- included in the Book of Taliesin, as a signal of resurrection since their sprouts are of spiral form.