Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race Part 6

4. The invasion of the _Tuatha De Danann_, or People of the G.o.d Dana.

5. The invasion of the Milesians (Sons of Miled) from Spain, and their conquest of the People of Dana.

With the Milesians we begin to come into something resembling historythey represent, in Irish legend, the Celtic race; and from them the ruling families of Ireland are supposed to be descended. The People of Dana are evidently G.o.ds. The pre-Danaan settlers or invaders are huge phantom-like figures, which loom vaguely through the mists of tradition, and have little definite characterisation. The accounts which are given of them are many and conflicting, and out of these we can only give here the more ancient narratives.

*The Coming of Partholan*

The Celts, as we have learned from Caesar, believed themselves to be descended from the G.o.d of the Underworld, the G.o.d of the Dead. Partholan is said to have come into Ireland from the West, where beyond the vast, unsailed Atlantic Ocean the Irish Fairyland, the Land of the Living_i.e._, the land of the Happy Dead was placed. His fathers name was Sera (? the West). He came with his queen Dalny(74) and a number of companions of both s.e.xes. Irelandand this is an imaginative touch intended to suggest extreme antiquitywas then a different country, physically, from what it is now. There were then but three lakes in Ireland, nine rivers, and only one plain. Others were added gradually during the reign of the Partholanians. One, Lake Rury, was said to have burst out as a grave was being dug for Rury, son of Partholan.

*The Fomorians*

The Partholanians, it is said, had to do battle with a strange race, called the Fomorians, of whom we shall hear much in later sections of this book. They were a huge, misshapen, violent and cruel people, representing, we may believe, the powers of evil. One of these was surnamed _Cenchos_, which means The Footless, and thus appears to be related to Vitra, the G.o.d of Evil in Vedantic mythology, who had neither feet nor hands. With a host of these demons Partholan fought for the lords.h.i.+p of Ireland, and drove them out to the northern seas, whence they occasionally harried the country under its later rulers.

The end of the race of Partholan was that they were afflicted by pestilence, and having gathered together on the Old Plain (Senmag) for convenience of burying their dead, they all perished there; and Ireland once more lay empty for reoccupation.

*The Legend of Tuan mac Carell*

Who, then, told the tale? This brings us to the mention of a very curious and interesting legendone of the numerous legendary narratives in which these tales of the Mythical Period have come down to us. It is found in the so-called Book of the Dun Cow, a ma.n.u.script of about the year A.D.

1100, and is ent.i.tled The Legend of Tuan mac Carell.

St. Finnen, an Irish abbot of the sixth century, is said to have gone to seek hospitality from a chief named Tuan mac Carell, who dwelt not far from Finnens monastery at Moville, Co. Donegal. Tuan refused him admittance. The saint sat down on the doorstep of the chief and fasted for a whole Sunday,(75) upon which the surly pagan warrior opened the door to him. Good relations were established between them, and the saint returned to his monks.

Tuan is an excellent man, said he to them; he will come to you and comfort you, and tell you the old stories of Ireland.(76)

This humane interest in the old myths and legends of the country is, it may here be observed, a feature as constant as it is pleasant in the literature of early Irish Christianity.

Tuan came shortly afterwards to return the visit of the saint, and invited him and his disciples to his fortress. They asked him of his name and lineage, and he gave an astounding reply. I am a man of Ulster, he said.

My name is Tuan son of Carell. But once I was called Tuan son of Starn, son of Sera, and my father, Starn, was the brother of Partholan.

Tell us the history of Ireland, then said Finnen, and Tuan began.

Partholan, he said, was the first of men to settle in Ireland. After the great pestilence already narrated he alone survived, for there is never a slaughter that one man does not come out of it to tell the tale. Tuan was alone in the land, and he wandered about from one vacant fortress to another, from rock to rock, seeking shelter from the wolves. For twenty-two years he lived thus alone, dwelling in waste places, till at last he fell into extreme decrepitude and old age.

Then Nemed son of Agnoman took possession of Ireland. He [Agnoman] was my fathers brother. I saw him from the cliffs, and kept avoiding him. I was long-haired, clawed, decrepit, grey, naked, wretched, miserable. Then one evening I fell asleep, and when I woke again on the morrow I was changed into a stag. I was young again and glad of heart. Then I sang of the coming of Nemed and of his race, and of my own transformation.... I have put on a new form, a skin rough and grey. Victory and joy are easy to me; a little while ago I was weak and defenceless.

Tuan is then king of all the deer of Ireland, and so remained all the days of Nemed and his race.

He tells how the Nemedians sailed for Ireland in a fleet of thirty-two barks, in each bark thirty persons. They went astray on the seas for a year and a half, and most of them perished of hunger and thirst or of s.h.i.+pwreck. Nine only escapedNemed himself, with four men and four women.

These landed in Ireland, and increased their numbers in the course of time till they were 8060 men and women. Then all of them mysteriously died.

Again old age and decrepitude fell upon Tuan, but another transformation awaited him. Once I was standing at the mouth of my caveI still remember it and I knew that my body changed into another form. I was a wild boar.

And I sang this song about it:

To-day I am a boar.... Time was when I sat in the a.s.sembly that gave the judgments of Partholan. It was sung, and all praised the melody. How pleasant was the strain of my brilliant judgment! How pleasant to the comely young women! My chariot went along in majesty and beauty. My voice was grave and sweet. My step was swift and firm in battle. My face was full of charm. To-day, lo! I am changed into a black boar.

That is what I said. Yea, of a surety I was a wild boar. Then I became young again, and I was glad. I was king of the boar-herds in Ireland; and, faithful to any custom, I went the rounds of my abode when I returned into the lands of Ulster, at the times old age and wretchedness came upon me.

For it was always there that my transformations took place, and that is why I went back thither to await the renewal of my body.

Tuan then goes on to tell how Semion son of Stariat settled in Ireland, from whom descended the Firbolgs and two other tribes who persisted into historic times. Again old age comes on, his strength fails him, and he undergoes another transformation; he becomes a great eagle of the sea, and once more rejoices in renewed youth and vigour. He then tells how the People of Dana came in, G.o.ds and false G.o.ds from whom every one knows the Irish men of learning are sprung. After these came the Sons of Miled, who conquered the People of Dana. All this time Tuan kept the shape of the sea-eagle, till one day, finding himself about to undergo another transformation, he fasted nine days; then sleep fell upon me, and I was changed into a salmon. He rejoices in his new life, escaping for many years the snares of the fishermen, till at last he is captured by one of them and brought to the wife of Carell, chief of the country. The woman desired me and ate me by herself, whole, so that I pa.s.sed into her womb.

He is born again, and pa.s.ses for Tuan son of Carell; but the memory of his pre-existence and all his transformations and all the history of Ireland that he witnessed since the days of Partholan still abides with him, and he teaches all these things to the Christian monks, who carefully preserve them.

This wild tale, with its atmosphere of grey antiquity and of childlike wonder, reminds us of the transformations of the Welsh Taliessin, who also became an eagle, and points to that doctrine of the transmigration of the soul which, as we have seen, haunted the imagination of the Celt.

We have now to add some details to the sketch of the successive colonisations of Ireland outlined by Tuan mac Carell.

*The Nemedians*

The Nemedians, as we have seen, were akin to the Partholanians. Both of them came from the mysterious regions of the dead, though later Irish accounts, which endeavoured to reconcile this mythical matter with Christianity, invented for them a descent from Scriptural patriarchs and an origin in earthly lands such as Spain or Scythia. Both of them had to do constant battle with the Fomorians, whom the later legends make out to be pirates from oversea, but who are doubtless divinities representing the powers of darkness and evil. There is no legend of the Fomorians coming into Ireland, nor were they regarded as at any time a regular portion of the population. They were coeval with the world itself. Nemed fought victoriously against them in four great battles, but shortly afterwards died of a plague which carried off 2000 of his people with him. The Fomorians were then enabled to establish their tyranny over Ireland. They had at this period two kings, Morc and Conann. The stronghold of the Formorian power was on Tory Island, which uplifts its wild cliffs and precipices in the Atlantic off the coast of Donegala fit home for this race of mystery and horror. They extracted a crus.h.i.+ng tribute from the people of Ireland, two-thirds of all the milk and two-thirds of the children of the land. At last the Nemedians rise in revolt. Led by three chiefs, they land on Tory Island, capture Conanns Tower, and Conann himself falls by the hand of the Nemedian chief, Fergus. But Morc at this moment comes into the battle with a fresh host, and utterly routs the Nemedians, who are all slain but thirty:

The men of Erin were all at the battle, After the Fomorians came; All of them the sea engulphed, Save only three times ten.

_Poem by Eochy OFlann, circ_. A.D. 960.

The thirty survivors leave Ireland in despair. According to the most ancient belief they perished utterly, leaving no descendants, but later accounts, which endeavour to make sober history out of all these myths, represent one family, that of the chief Britan, as settling in Great Britain and giving their name to that country, while two others returned to Ireland, after many wanderings, as the Firbolgs and People of Dana.

*The Coming of the Firbolgs*

Who were the Firbolgs, and what did they represent in Irish legend? The name appears to mean Men of the Bags, and a legend was in later times invented to account for it. It was said that after settling in Greece they were oppressed by the people of that country, who set them to carry earth from the fertile valleys up to the rocky hills, so as to make arable ground of the latter. They did their task by means of leathern bags; but at last, growing weary of the oppression, they made boats or coracles out of their bags, and set sail in them for Ireland. Nennius, however, says they came from Spain, for according to him all the various races that inhabited Ireland came originally from Spain; and Spain with him is a rationalistic rendering of the Celtic words designating the Land of the Dead.(77) They came in three groups, the Fir-Bolg, the Fir-Domnan, and the Galioin, who are all generally designated as Firbolgs. They play no great part in Irish mythical history, and a certain character of servility and inferiority appears to attach to them throughout.

One of their kings, Eochy(78) mac Erc, took in marriage Taltiu, or Telta, daughter of the King of the Great Plain (the Land of the Dead). Telta had a palace at the place now called after her, Telltown (properly Teltin). There she died, and there, even in medival Ireland, a great annual a.s.sembly or fair was held in her honour.

*The Coming of the People of Dana*

We now come to by far the most interesting and important of the mythical invaders and colonisers of Ireland, the People of Dana. The name, _Tuatha De Danann_, means literally the folk of the G.o.d whose mother is Dana.

Dana also sometimes bears another name, that of Brigit, a G.o.ddess held in much honour by pagan Ireland, whose attributes are in a great measure transferred in legend to the Christian St. Brigit of the sixth century.

Her name is also found in Gaulish inscriptions as Brigindo, and occurs in several British inscriptions as Brigantia. She was the daughter of the supreme head of the People of Dana, the G.o.d Dagda, The Good. She had three sons, who are said to have had in common one only son, named Ecnethat is to say, Knowledge, or Poetry.(79) Ecne, then, may be said to be the G.o.d whose mother was Dana, and the race to whom she gave her name are the clearest representatives we have in Irish myths of the powers of Light and Knowledge. It will be remembered that alone among all these mythical races Tuan mac Carell gave to the People of Dana the name of G.o.ds. Yet it is not as G.o.ds that they appear in the form in which Irish legends about them have now come down to us. Christian influences reduced them to the rank of fairies or identified them with the fallen angels.

They were conquered by the Milesians, who are conceived as an entirely human race, and who had all sorts of relations of love and war with them until quite recent times. Yet even in the later legends a certain splendour and exaltation appears to invest the People of Dana, recalling the high estate from which they had been dethroned.

*The Popular and the Bardic Conceptions*

Nor must it be overlooked that the popular conception of the Danaan deities was probably at all times something different from the bardic and Druidic, or in other words the scholarly, conception. The latter, as we shall see, represents them as the presiding deities of science and poetry.

This is not a popular idea; it is the product of the Celtic, the Aryan imagination, inspired by a strictly intellectual conception. The common people, who represented mainly the Megalithic element in the population, appear to have conceived their deities as earth-powers_dei terreni_, as they are explicitly called in the eighth-century Book of Armagh(80)presiding, not over science and poetry, but rather agriculture, controlling the fecundity of the earth and water, and dwelling in hills, rivers, and lakes. In the bardic literature the Aryan idea is prominent; the other is to be found in innumerable folk-tales and popular observances; but of course in each case a considerable amount of interpenetration of the two conceptions is to be met withno sharp dividing line was drawn between them in ancient times, and none can be drawn now.

*The Treasures of the Danaans*

Tuan mac Carell says they came to Ireland out of heaven. This is embroidered in later tradition into a narrative telling how they sprang from four great cities, whose very names breathe of fairydom and romanceFalias, Gorias, Finias, and Murias. Here they learned science and craftsmans.h.i.+p from great sages one of whom was enthroned in each city, and from each they brought with them a magical treasure. From Falias came the stone called the _Lia Fail_, or Stone of Destiny, on which the High-Kings of Ireland stood when they were crowned, and which was supposed to confirm the election of a rightful monarch by roaring under him as he took his place on it. The actual stone which was so used at the inauguration of a reign did from immemorial times exist at Tara, and was sent thence to Scotland early in the sixth century for the crowning of Fergus the Great, son of Erc, who begged his brother Murtagh mac Erc, King of Ireland, for the loan of it. An ancient prophecy told that wherever this stone was, a king of the Scotic (_i.e._, Irish-Milesian) race should reign. This is the famous Stone of Scone, which never came back to Ireland, but was removed to England by Edward I. in 1297, and is now the Coronation Stone in Westminster Abbey. Nor has the old prophecy been falsified, since through the Stuarts and Fergus mac Erc the descent of the British royal family can be traced from the historic kings of Milesian Ireland.

The second treasure of the Danaans was the invincible sword of Lugh of the Long Arm, of whom we shall hear later, and this sword came from the city of Gorias. From Finias came a magic spear, and from Murias the Cauldron of the Dagda, a vessel which had the property that it could feed a host of men without ever being emptied.

With these possessions, according to the version given in the Book of Invasions, the People of Dana came into Ireland.

*The Danaans and the Firbolgs*

They were wafted into the land in a magic cloud, making their first appearance in Western Connacht. When the cloud cleared away, the Firbolgs discovered them in a camp which they had already fortified at Moyrein.

The Firbolgs now sent out one of their warriors, named Sreng, to interview the mysterious new-comers; and the People of Dana, on their side, sent a warrior named Bres to represent them. The two amba.s.sadors examined each others weapons with great interest. The spears of the Danaans, we are told, were light and sharp-pointed; those of the Firbolgs were heavy and blunt. To contrast the power of science with that of brute force is here the evident intention of the legend, and we are reminded of the Greek myth of the struggle of the Olympian deities with the t.i.tans.

Bres proposed to the Firbolg that the two races should divide Ireland equally between them, and join to defend it against all comers for the future. They then exchanged weapons and returned each to his own camp.