seventh year at the proper hour, they become crimson. Etar alone of the kings survived.35
The Christian scribes were puzzled over the Tuatha Dé Danann. The earliest reference to them says that because of their knowledge they were banished from heaven, arriving in Ireland in clouds and mists—the smoke of their burning ships, says an euhemerizing tradition. Eochaid ua Flainn, in the tenth century, calls them "phantoms" (siabhra) and asks whether they came from heaven or earth; were they demons or men. They were affiliated to Japhet, yet regarded as demons in the Book of Invasions. Another tradition makes them a branch of the descendants of Nemed who, after being in the Northern isles learning wizardry, returned to Ireland. The annalists treated them more or less as men; official Christianity more or less as demons; popular belief and romance as a kind of beautiful fairy race with much of their old divine aspect.
D'Arbois translates 'Tuatha Dé Danann as "people of the god whose mother is called Danu";36 Stokes renders it "folk or folks of the goddess Danu";37 Stern prefers to regard Danann as a later addition and to take the earlier name as Tuatha Dé or Fir Dea—"the divine tribe," or "the men of the god."38 Three insignificant members of the group, Brian, luchar, and lucharba, are sometimes called "three gods of Danu"; and hence also, perhaps, the whole group is designated "men of the three gods." Brian, luchar, and lucharba are also termed tri deé dána, or "three gods of dán," i. e. "knowledge," or "fate." Danand (Danu) is mentioned with Béchuille as a separate goddess, and both are called foster-mothers of the gods. Cormac's Glossary knows nothing of Danu, but speaks of a goddess Anu, mater deorum hihernensium—" It was well she nursed the gods"vwhile he refers to two hills in Kerry as "the paps of Anu," which a later glossary calls "the paps of Danu."
Ireland is called lath n'Anann, and Anu is mentioned with Macha, Morrígan, and Badb, the war-goddesses, though other passages give Danu along with these. Possibly Danu is a mistake for Anu, through confusion with dán, "knowledge," knowledge as a function of Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba being personified as Danu, so that they would then be called gods or sons of Danu, though they were actually sons of Brigit. As Stem points out, Danu can scarcely be mother of the whole group, since she herself is daughter of Delbaeth, who was brother of Dagda, Ogma, Bres, etc. If Anu was mother of the group, the likeness of her name to Danu would also lead to the mistake; and Anu as goddess is perhaps a personification of Ireland, a kind of earth mother. On the whole, the general relationship of the euhemerized gods evolved by the annalists is as mythical as the pagan stories themselves.
In the story of The Children of Tuirenn Brian, luchar, and lucharba are sons of Tuirenn, son of Ogma. One day Cian, at enmity with them, saw them approaching. Striking himself with a Druidic wand, he became a pig, but Brian noticed this and changed himself and his brothers into hounds which chased and killed Cian with stones, because he said that weapons would tell the deed to his son. They buried his body seven times ere the earth ceased to reject it. Lug, Clan's son, was told of this deed by the earth, and he forced the children of Tuirenn to bring many magical treasures, in getting which danger was incurred. By their father's advice they crossed the sea in Manannan's canoe and succeeded in obtaining the treasures, but now had to give "three shouts on Cnoc Miodhchaoin," a hill on which Miodhchaoin and his sons prohibited all shouting. Here, then, they were wounded by these men, and their father asked Lug for the magic pig's skin which healed all wounds. He refused it, even when Brian was carried before him, and thus the murderers perished miserably.39
Most of the names of the chief gods have already been mentioned—Dagda or Eochaid Ollathair, who in one place is called an "earth god" to the Tuatha Dé Danann, and also their "god of wizardry"—probably a deity of fruitfulness and fertility; Oengus; Nuada; Ogma, god of poetry; Goibniu, god of smiths; Creidne, of braziers; Diancecht, of medicine; Manannan, son of Ler; Midir; Bodb Dearg; Lug, perhaps a sun-god; and other lesser divinities. Of goddesses there are Anu or Danu; Brigit, goddess of poetry and primitive culture; Etain; and the war-goddesses—Morrigan, Macha, and Neman, while Badb constitutes a fourth or sometimes takes the place of one of the triple group. The Tuatha Dé Danann had power over agriculture and cattle, but they had other functions, while all of them had great magic potency. Unfortunately few myths about these functions exist, and their precise nature must be matter of conjecture. The mythico-magical nature of the gods' possessions survives even in records which regard them
PLATE VSmertullos
This deity is perhaps a god of the underworld, particularly as the serpent is a chthonian creature. See p. 158. From an altar found at Notre Dame, Paris. For other Celtic deities of Elysium see Plates VII–IX, XII–XIV, XVI, XXV–XXVI.
as mortals. The preface to the story of the battle of Mag-Tured tells how from Falias was brought the stone of Fal, which roared under every king who would assume the sovereignty. From Gorias was brought Lug's spear; no battle was ever won against it or against him who bore it. From Findias came Nuada's sword, which none could escape when it was drawn. From Murias came Dagda's cauldron, from which no company ever went away unthankful.40 Their magic food and other possessions will be mentioned later. Some things of which no myths remain are said to have been in the Brug na Boinne—the bed of Dagda, the two paps of Morrigan, the comb and casket of Dagda's wife (i. e. two hills), the stone wall of Oengus, the shot of Midir's eye, and the like.
CHAPTER II
TUATHA DÉ DANANN AND MILESIANS
The annalistic account of the conquest of the Tuatha De Danann by the Milesians cannot conceal the divinity of the former nor the persistence of the belief in Druidic magic and supernatural power. M. d'Arbois has shown that the scheme which makes the Tuatha Dé Danann masters of Ireland for one hundred and sixty-nine years until the Milesians came is the invention of Gilla Coemain, who died in 1072. The Book of Invasions adopted it, and it assumes that the gods reigned in succession as kings until 1700 b.c. Even in Gilla Coemain's time, however, this scheme was not always accepted, for Tigernach in his Annals knows no historic Irish date before 305 b.c. , while current tales showed that the gods were still alive at a much later date, e. g. in the time of Conchobar and Cúchulainn, alleged Irish contemporaries of Christ.1
When the Milesians arrived, three Kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann ruled—MacCuill ("Son of the Hazel"), MacCecht ("Son of the Plough"), and MacGréine ("Son of the Sun"), married respectively to Banba, Fotla, and Ériu, whose names are ancient names of Ireland, the last still surviving as "Erin."
Were these old eponymous goddesses, from whom parts of Ireland were supposed to have taken their names, or were they inventions of the annalists, derived from titles given to the country? The former is suggested by an incident in the story. The three Kings may have been gods of nature and agriculture, and in fighting the Milesians they were respectively slain by Eber, Airem ("Ploughman"), and Amairgen, singer of spells and giver of judgements. The Milesians were descendants of a Scythian noble expelled from Egypt, who came to Spain, where his descendant Bregon built a tower and was father or grand- father of Mile, whose father is sometimes called Bile. Another son, Ith, gazing one evening from the tower, saw the coast of Ireland. With ninety followers he sailed thither and was wel- comed by the Kings, who begged him to settle a dispute. Very different was his fate from that of folk-tale heroes called in to adjust quarrels. While bidding the Kings act according to jus- tice, he so praised the fertility of the land that they suspected him of designs upon it and slew him. His followers carried his body to Spain, and the chiefs of the Milesians, resolving to avenge him, sailed to Ireland, but the Tuatha De Danann made a magic mist, so that the island appeared like a hog's back — hence its name Muic-Inis, or "Pig Island." At last
