Elen of the Ways/Roads/Hosts

(image from HERE)

Elen is elusive, ethereal, gossamer, yet in my research and experiences over the years, she has allowed me to follow her quicksilver thread and revealed herself in her various guises.
As the Green Lady, she peeps out between the trees in forests and woods. As a British Venus, Goddess of Gardens, she is the Flower Bride: at her Holy wells, mainly to be found in the North of the country, she is guardian of the underground streams that carry the sacred waters. These underground streams have themselves become a metaphor for the secret continuation of sacred wisdom. She is the Guardian of the ancient track ways, the Leys, the kundalini currents in nature, and as the Horned Goddess, she leads us to the first trackways, the migratory tracks of the reindeer and later, she leads us to the path of the red deer through the forests. From here she leads us to the lost Shamanism of the isles of Britain, and we can follow her across Scandinavia, Russia, Mongolia, Siberia, India and beyond.

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For the FULL article, please see:
Elen of the Ways - Part One & Part Two

Elen of the ways, the antlered goddess takes a rest on an ancient, mysterious path at Lands end in Cornwall (Kernow) , the western most point of the land they called Albion. Also known as the Green Lady, she is the only horned goddess, wearing the antlers of the female Reindeer, in turn the only Deer whose females are antlered. Elen is the guardian of the Leys, the ancient track ways . Her earliest tracks were the migratory paths of the Reindeer, and here is the close association with them. The birds visiting her are red billed Choughs, Britain's rarest Crow is also Cornwall's national bird, legend says it is one of these that King Arthur shape shifted into rather than truly die.

From: here (also see an art piece it's referring to)

In ancient Britain She was Elen of the Hosts. She lives on British Tradition as Elen of the Ways. She is Protectress of the Pathways; whether they are physical, mental, or spiritual paths. She is Guardian of all who journey.

For the rest, see: Elen of the Ways

Elen Lluyddog
A Cymric Heroine: Helen of the Hosts
Elen Lluyddog is a Cymric hero known from the Mabinogi of Breuddwyd Maxen Wledig and the Welsh Triads as the wife of Magnus Maximus, who provides him a host for the conquest of Rome.


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Thus Elen would seem to be an echo of an ancestral deity (both in terms of the Cymric lineages and in terms of being an 'originator' figure) who appears to have been particularly associated with Roman Roads. Indeed, some of these Roman roads are known to this day as Sarn(au) Elen (The Causeways of Elen). Whether this represents the survival of an ancient Brythonic road-builder goddess in later mythos can never be known. However, this is an interesting proposition in light of the discovery of Celtic wooden roadways in Ireland and Europe and the re-appraisal of the Celts rather than the Romans as Europe's first large-scale road builders (though the Celts built roads of perishable wood rather than durable stone).

From: Celtnet

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She is certainly a pre-Roman goddess, and possibly much older than the Celts. The first trackways across Britain are said to have been reindeer tracks; Elain is Welsh for deer, and it is possible that Elen is one of the horned goddesses portrayed in Celtic art, such as the two figures found at Lackford and Icklingham. Reindeer are the only deer where the females bear horns, though they died out in Britain at the end of the last Ice Age, so race memories of her must be very ancient indeed. Some of the Sarn Elen tracks are associated with the Wild Hunt, led in some places by the Horned God, and in others by the Death Goddess. Some say that the tracks we call ley lines are spirit paths that the souls of the dead travel to the afterlife. Perhaps she was a psychopomp, guiding wayfarers on unknown paths in this world and the next, or a shamanic deity who guided the spirit flights of witches. Certainly, many people have experienced strange things on the Sarn Elen. The Welsh revered Elen as Elen of the Roads who at Beltane (1st May) opened the season of travel.

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For the full article: here

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Elen is very special, for me, because she is the patron of roads and gates between the worlds. In Chesca’s image, she stands before a dolmen gate embellished with symbols suggesting access to the Upper, Middle and Lower worlds. When you travel the British isles, you may feel Elen’s soft footfall – beneath the traffic and modern construction – along the deer paths and ancient trackways and in the the lapping of quiet streams.

Elen is Lady of the Ways in many senses. Most significant, for me, is her role as Lady of the Dreamways. In the great cycle of Welsh epic poems known as the Mabinogion,Elen calls a king to her in his dreams, and he finds her embodiment in the physical world when he learns to use his dreams as a map and to follow their roads.

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Let me add that Elen of the Dreamways has a double or close sister across the North Sea in Nehalennia, who was venerated at Celtic sacred sites on what is now the coast of the Netherlands. She was the patron of voyagers; seafarers and traders made offerings to her for safe passage and success in their transactions. Her name may mean “Steerswoman” or “Pilot”. She is depicted as a lovely young woman enthroned within a seashell, with a basket of fruit on her lap and a dog nearby, gazing up at her adoringly. Often she has her foot on the prow of a ship, and a boat rope in her hand.

Nehalennia’s other close animal companion is the dolphin. She is the patron of astral as well as physical journeys, just as Elen is the maker of roads as well as dreamways. For the Celts, the happy afterlife on the Islands of the Blessed requires a crossing by water. And in ancient Europe (as in Polynesia) one of the favorite forms of transportation for the Otherworld voyage is the dolphin. Ripe fruits are often carved over the top of Nehalennia’s shrines. She offers abundance and ever-renewing life, as well as safe passage through the Otherworld, before and after death.

From: Here

Also see:Goddess, Saint and Ancestor - Elen of the Hosts
Elen Luyddog
Elen Luyddog - wiki