Threefold death

Lore & Background

In Welsh legend, Lailoken (often conflated with Myrddin Wyllt in later tradition) prophesied a boy would die by falling, hanging, and drowning; the boy later fell from a rock, caught in a tree, and drowned hanging head down in a lake. Lailoken also prophesied his own death by falling, stabbing, and drowning, fulfilled when shepherds drove him off a cliff onto a stake and into water. The Norse god Odin is said to have hanged himself and while falling, impaled himself on his spear Gungnir in order to learn the secrets of the runes. Human sacrifices to Odin were hanged from trees.

Reader's Guide

The threefold death is significant as a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European theme that appears across multiple Indo-European cultures, supporting the trifunctional hypothesis of social organization. The pattern is found in myths and legends in two main forms: a single death by three means simultaneously, or a series of three deaths each by a different method. The Commenta Bernensia links the Celtic gods Teutates, Esus, and Taranis to drowning, hanging with wounding, and burning respectively, matching the three sacrificial methods.

Ibn Fadlan's account of a Rus funeral describes a slave girl strangled, stabbed, and burned, creating a threefold death. The Vita Columbae recounts the triple death of Aedh the Black, pierced with a spear, falling from a tree into water and drowning, and of King Diarmuid, killed by slaughter, burning, drowning, and a falling ridge pole. These stories show the theme as punishment for offenses against the three functions of Indo-European society.

Did You Know?

• In the Vita Columbae, Aedh blasphemes by being ordained a priest outside of the Church.