And The Tuatha De Danann(the Deities of Ancient

Ireland)

The background to the mythology of early Ireland can be found in the important source known as Lebor Gabala Erenn.

The five volumes of the Lebor Gabala Erenn (Book of Invasions of Ireland) were compiled gradually and over a period of several centuries.

The oldest surviving version of this very important work comes from the Book of Leinster from the 12th century.

This work is an example of what is sometimes called ‘pseudo-history’.

Unlike other similar texts from antiquity (Hesiod’s Theogany and the early Icelandic Eddas, the BI does not give an attempt to explain the origins of the world, but rather attempts to tell how different peoples (or nations) came to Ireland in ancient times (they are mainly but not all unhistorical).

The text does not read like “conventional” history, since it is a synchronized text containing early Irish myth, legend, and genealogy.

It is influenced by stories taken from the Old Testament, with the earth seen as the centre of the universe (Ptolemy).

Some elements in the text are however of enormous importance:

The key text in the document is The Second Battle of Moytura (Cath Maige Tuired) which we will discuss at length in the next class.

Of equal importance are the Tuatha Dé Danann themselves, the generic name given to the ancient deities of the Irish who are first introduced in detail in this text.

The context of the text is, of course, the perceived archaic history of Ireland and the invasions into the island.

This is largely regarded as ‘pseudo-history’ but until the 17th century AD was still thought of as being a real account of the coming of various peoples into Ireland before the early medieval period.

More recent research into the text does however suggest strongly that certain sections of the text do refer to specific historical peoples.

The BI rightly states that one of the early names of the Irish (or some of them) was scoti, a name later transferred to Scot-land. But the BI claims that the origins of the Scoti was in Scythia, who later become exiles in Egypt with the Hebrews.

This connects with a commonly found claim in mythic histories of certain nations (before the modern era) that they are one of the lost tribes of Israel.

Also in the BI, the scoti invent their language whilst in Egypt.

Fenius Farsaid is present at the Babel Tower and instructs his grandson Goidel Glas to create the Irish language.

After this pseudo-Biblical introduction, the text moves on to the crux of the matter in hand: the invasions of Ireland and the creation of the Irish people.

The text gives six waves of migration into Ireland, all named after their leaders.

Only one of these six is mortal, all the others are either divine or at least not wholely human.CesairParthonianNemedianFir BolgTuatha De DanannMilesian (the Gaels, or Sons of Mil).

The Fomorians (‘fo’ under, ‘mor’ sea). They are not one of the six invaders. They are a malevolent power and

people whose influence is found throughout the Book of Invasions.

Possibly in origin ‘euhemerized’ sea-deities. Firstly monster-like with one-eye, arm leg. Tory island.

Shown later as being demonic and human like in the BI

The Fir Bolg

The meaning of this name has been the subject of some controversy.

Once it was thought that the name meant ‘men of bags’, then this was dismissed, but it has now become popular again as an explanation.

Another often favoured explanations takes the word ‘bolg’ to be derived from the tribal name ‘Belgae’.

Their arrival is often associated with two other groups the Fir Domnainn and the Gaileanga.

Whereas Fir Bolg might refer to the Belgae, the second probably refers to the British tribe known as the Dumnonii.

The Fir Bolg and the Fir Dumnainn probably represent the pre-Goidelic Celtic speakers, known as Ivernic-speaking Celts (perhaps a form of Brythonic)..

Another theory states Fir Bolg=Picts.

This agricultural people (Fir Bolg) only hold sway in Ireland for 37 years.

Their generous king is Eochaid mac Eirc. He instigated the Feast of Tailtiu

(named after his wife). The FB are defeated by the invading

Tuatha De Danann at the First Battle of Moytura. They are scattered to the four corners of the island (including Scotland).

The Fir Bolg were still mentioned in Irish and Scottish Gaelic folklore as cave-dwelling fairies or as very low-cast serfs.

They seem in some ways to correspond to the dwarf or goblins of Germanic lore.

According to the compilers of the BI, the Tuatha De Danann are described as having arrived in Ireland some 37 years after the Fir Bolg. (and 297 years before the Milesians=the Gaels).

In the earliest Irish literature it is largely the Tuatha De Danann and the Milesians (the mortal Irish) who figure as the main progagonists.

The other arrivals are described as having come by ship, but the Tuatha DD diembark from the clouds shortly before the festival of Beltaine Maytime).

Their arrival causes a three-day eclipse as they alight on a mountain in western Ireland. (Another version of the story describes them arriving by ship, but when they burn their ships this causes an eclipse).

The name of this people has all the markings of antiquity.

Tuatha means people or tribe (touta in Gaulish)

De=of the god or goddess Danann=genitive form of Danu/Anu (of

Danu, Anu).

In many senses the personalities of the Tuatha DD seem like the equivalent of the Greek pantheon- the Olympians.

They are familiar in many of the Irish sagas (mainly Ulster) and mythic tales in early I lit.

They are very humanized (euhemerized), and extremely colourful like the deities of Olympus, or the Hindu gods of the Rg Veda and Mahabharata.

They are described as having brought with them their treasures from the four cities whence they came.

The sword of light of Nuadhu/Nuada The spear (Gae Assail) of Lug

(Lamfhota) The cauldron of Dagda The stone of Fal.

The chief of the Irish deities (of the Tuatha De Danann) is DAGDA.

Warrior, craftsman, magician and omniscient and sexually potent ruler.

His magical pigs, his fruit trees, his enormous club (dragged on wheels).

He goes by other names occasionally : Eochair Ollathair, Ruad Rofhessa, Deirgderc.

One of Dagda’s lovers is the river goddess BOAND (*buvinda).

The name is anglicized to Boyne. With the Dagda she conceives

Oengus, the Mac Og (known in Gaul as Maponos and Wales as Mabon).

Her origins are often associated with an origin myth which describes how she violated a taboo which leads to a well pouring forth and washing her to the sea and at the same time creating the river Boyne (a major river in northern Ireland).

The god of the sea in Irish tradition and a major personality of the Tuatha De Danann is MANANNAN MAC LIR.

He has a concealing mist (ceo) which all of the TDD use to be invisible to mortals (the Gaels, descendants of the Milesians).

There is very likely to be a close association between him and the Isle of Man, and probably he takes his name from the island. (mac Lir is ‘son of the sea’).

He will appear in the narrative The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulaind) when his former wife will become the love of the hero.

The god of youth, love, as well as poetry is OENGUS (also spelled Angus Og). He plays a major role in The Dream of Oengus and especially The Wooing of Etain.

Four swans fly above his head as he travels (the otherworld people often appear in bird-form).

Oengus is described as living in the tumulus of Bru na Bóinne (Newgrange) formerly inhabited by his mother Boand, and Nuadhu.

He is associated with narratives about romantic love, and helps lovers in later folklore. He is described as dreaming of his own love-interest called Caer, the swan-girl.

The god who led the Tuatha De Danann into Ireland was Nuad(h)u Airgetlam (silver-arm). When he loses his arm or hand, he becomes ‘blemished’ and can no longer be king. His hand(or arm) is replaced by a silver replica.

He is known in Celtic Britain as Nodons (Nodent-) and later in Welsh tradition as Nudd (Llaw-Eraint=silver hand).

He is described as being killed in battle against the Fomorians, yet his alter ego Elcmar is found in the mythic tale The Wooing of Etain.

To replace Nuadu’s arm/hand the physician of the Tuatha was called, namely Dian Cecht. In battle he can restore every mortally wounded warrior except for those who have been decapitated.

He uses the tipra slaine (spring of health/life) to achieve this.

Dian Cecht is sometimes described as being Lug Lamfhota’s grandfather.

Like the heroic age of Irish mortals, the Tuatha also have champions who partake in mythic battles. One of these is (the) OGMA. (the others are the Dagda and Lug).

He is the orator-warrior. This combination is quite surprising. He is associated with oratory and eloquence, and famed as the inventor of the Ogham script.

His name is cognate with the Gaulish deity Ogmios.

As we shall see the Tuatha DD are the inhabitants eventually of the Irish Otherworld which is not the realm of the dead.

That world (not strictly the Otherworld) is the domain of the god DONN. Yet Donn is one of the Tuatha De Danann, and arrived with the TDD.

He is described as living in Tech Duinn (the house of Donn). Versions of his name occur in Da Derga’s Hostel.

It seems that the early Celts (of Ireland, Britain and Gaul) considered that they were descended from an ancestor deity.

In Gaul Caesar calls that deity Dis Pater, in Britain it was Belenos, and in Ireland there is some confusion between the Dagda and Donn concerning this role.

The dead are said to live with Donn.

The early La Tène culture of the Iron Age Celts put great emphasis on creating artifacts in metal, and especially gold, silver and of course iron. Thus the smith was a prominent person in early Celtic society. The deity who represented this function in Ireland was GOIBNIU, another of the Tuatha De Danann.

He is also a warrior, where he repairs and forges weapons and armour.

He is also seen as a god of healing, and in one mythic tale gives an Otherworld feast (Fled Goibnenn).Those attending are protected from old age.

Compare Gofannon in Britain, and Gobanno- in Gaul.

Tuirenn is described as the father of Goibniu by Brigid.

His name is suggestive of an Indo-European deity which means ‘thunder’.

Compare Glinyeu son of Taran in Welsh sources.

Credhne ( son of Tuireann) was the brother of Goibniu and one of the three craftsmen of the TDD who made weapons for use against the Fomorians.

One deity is known throughout the Celtic world in antiquity and well into the middle ages (as a euhemerized god). His name is LUG LAMFHOTA. The epithet means ‘of the long arm’.

In antiquity his name is recorded as Lug(os). Caesar mentions this deity but calls him by a Roman name: Mercury. He says that this god was the ‘inventor of all arts’ (omnium inventorem artium). Lug also has a similar ‘epithet’: samildánach. Both have festivals around 1st August (Lughnasa=Lughnasad).

Lug appears as a major character in the Second Battle of Moytura (next time), and makes ‘guest appearances’ in Etain, The Tain, and The Birth of Cu Chulaind.

After defeating the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha De Danann become the rulers of Ireland. In medieval Irish literature they appear much like mortals, as kings, queens and warriors, yet they are immortal.

The Milesians represent the native Irish, mortal and historical.

The difficulty with the origin tales of the Milesians lies mainly with the need to sift slight fact from fiction.

One explanation in the BII seems to echo the ‘arrival’ of the Q-Celtic (or Goidelic) peoples to Ireland.

This expalanation in the BI entails a movement from Spain to Ireland (Mil Espaine- their leader= the Goidelic Celts).

There is a certain fascination in early Irish writing with Spain, mainly because of the confusion between (H)iberia and Hibernia (Ireland in Latin).

There is also the assertion that some of the Irish must be of Spanish origin (folk genealogy and the ‘black Irish’).

Authors such as Stephen Oppenheimer (The Origins of the British) have demonstrated in genome studies that the people of the northern Iberian peninsula do share some characteristics with parts of the Irish population.

Pre-Indo-European neolithic populations.

The ‘Milesians’ sail from Spain for Ireland in 65 vessels just before Beltaine.

They are caught in a mist, but land in Kerry. The first to set foot in Ireland is Amairgin the poet and druid.

The Milesians meet three (sovereignty) goddesses Banba, Eriu and Fodla of the Tuatha De Danann.

At Tara the Milesians meet three kings the husbands of the three goddesses. The M demand that the TDD hand over their landwithout a struggle.

Remarkably the Book of Invasions does not explain specifically what happened to the Tuatha De Danann, the former rulers of the island.

Other sources in the 12th century, and mentioned in several of the texts (The Intoxication of the Ulaid, EIMS 190), state that they went ‘underground’.

The immortal gods of the Irish-the Tuatha De Danann-go into the Otherworld, and the Gaels control the surface.

Conflict continues between them for many generations afterwards.

The Dagda is described as having been killed, but usually his sons are mentioned as being the rulers of the Otherworld (especially in the Fenian Cycle).

In Irish tradition, the Tuatha were eventually merged with the fairies (aes sidhe).