Mythology 1 страница

Signe Anita Fuchs

Mythology

of the Celts

A comprehensive overview

Imprint

Signe Anita Fuchs: Mythology of the Celts
Print Edition in CreateSpace -
Amazon Publisher 2013
Cover: The battle between Cuchullain and Ferdiad
And all the illustrations (ink drawings)
Copyright: Dr.Signe Anita Fuchs
A-1190 Wien
www.signe.at

This book has been published in 2012

with the same title as an e-book

by Kindle Edition, Amazon.

Contents

Page 5: Imprint

Page 8: Foreword

Page 9: Notes on the Irish pronunciation

Page 10: Notes on the Welsh pronunciation

Page 12: Part One: The Gaelic - Irish sagas

and the world of their gods

Page 38: Part Two: The Britannic - Welsh - Breton myths

Page 69-72: Illustrations

Page 73: Part Three: The Druids

Page 91: The Irish tree alphabet

Page 102: Bibliography

Foreword

Celtic mythology is one of the largest literary treasures of the world.
Therefore, it is not easy to gain an overview about it.

The source material contains many variations and includes a large period of time, from the ancient world through the migration period, the Middle – Ages up to modern times, and the wealth of material is accordingly.

Therefore, I cannot claim to be complete.

My goal was to give a clear, easily readable summary through a systematic revision and to incite further studies through an indication of relevant publications.

Signe Anita Fuchs Vienna, August 2014

Notes on Pronunciation
Irish names and descriptions:

c: like English k
l: like English l,
si, se: like English sh
Lenited consonants:
bh, mh: like English v
ch: like English kh, sometimes breathy (before e and i)
dh, gh: as an initial guttural, in the middle of words silent, before e or i as y
adh: in a noun a long u, in a verb like-oh, sometimes y
fh: silent
ph: like English f
sh, th: like a strongly aspirated h
Eclipse: the consonant in front is spoken, for example: páirc (field) - i bpáirc (in the field)
ng: both letters spoken
ea: long u, like English uh
í, aoi, ao: a long ee
Diphthongs: saghas (species, variety) - as sa-is, leabhar (Book) - as lyaur
Accent = fada: ': vowel is spoken long and emphasized

Notes on Pronunciation

of the Welsh (Cymric) names and descriptions:

The emphasis is in Welsh mostly on the penultimate syllable

ae: like English ay
c: always as k
ch: like English kh
dd: voiced th as in English this
f: v like in English vote
ff: like English f
j: like English j
ll: like kh and l pronounced at the same time
oe: like o-e
ph: like English f
rh: rolled r with audible h
si: like English sh
th: like English th in thing
u: a short e like in big
w: is spoken as English ou
y: in monosyllables and in the last syllable of polysyllabic words a
short e, otherwise a dark a

Signe Anita Fuchs

MYTHOLOGY OF THE CELTS

PART ONE

The Gaelic-Irish sagas and the world of the gods

The topic of this chapter deals with the mythology of Ireland.
We are relatively well informed about it, since the early Christian monks in Ireland often came from druidic families and did not want to relinquish their tradition to which they had a strong connection. They also saw no contradiction to their Christian faith. They only changed the figures that had previously been gods to heroes, fairies or kings and provided the myths and legends with a superficial Christian reinterpretation, so that the old faith still shines through quite strongly. Now when the monasteries flourished and the scriptoria of the monastic libraries began their work, the monks wrote not only ornate Bibles and Gospels, they wrote their old legends and myths in Middle- and Old- Irish language, and preserved them so for their posterity. So there are still clearly visible traces of ancient mythology in numerous legends and tales that were collected at the beginning of the twentieth century in Ireland.

Among the ancient scriptures that have a special significance in relation to the mythology, can be summed up four large well-known cycles:

The first is the so-called Book of Conquests of Ireland, the Leabhar Gabhála Éreinn, (in the old spelling Lebor Gabála Érenn) that is preserved mainly in a copy of 1160-70 in the Leabhar Laignech, in the Book of Leinster. It contains a mythical elevated description of the immigration of different peoples into Ireland, including the famous Tuatha Dé Danann, the people of the Goddess Dana or Danu, exceeding in the knowledge of magic, which could also be looked at as a tribe of gods, described quite precisely in their functions and properties, such as Lugh, Dagda and Brigid. Later on they get transformed into heroes, fairies and elves. However, it also was not neglected to establish a Christian relationship and to construct a connection with Noah and the ark. The last wave of immigrants is best historically tangible and concerns the people of the Gaels, or Milesians, who still have a great significance for the Irish culture.

The second great cycle of sagas contains the tales of the Red Branch, in Irish Craobh Rua, which relate mainly to Northern Ireland. They can be found in a manuscript from the 13th century, the Book of the Dark-skinned Cow, Leabhar na h'Uidre, and in the Yellow Book of Lecan from the 11th century. The core is the Táin bó Cuailnge or the story of the theft of the cattle of Cooley, in which a conflict between Ulster and Connacht because of a mythical bull is told and which describes such well-known figures as the hero Cúchulainn, Queen Maeve of Connacht and the tragic Deirdre.

The third major group of sagas is based in Southern Ireland and includes the stories of the wise King Fionn Mac Cumhail and his Fianna, a specially trained army of chosen knights who fought for the good and for righteousness, and were often hired by other kings, such as King Cormac, for this purpose. They could have given the model for King Arthur and his knights. Again are the Book of Leinster and the Book of the dark-skinned Cow the main sources, the earliest mention of a Fionn can be found in an old Irish text from the probable 6th century. This cycle contains the love story of Diarmuid and Gráinne, which is supposed to be the prototype of the saga of Tristan and Iseult, and the abduction of Fionn's son Oisín through the beautiful Niamh into the fairy world, which inspired long after the “Ossian” by the Scottish poet McPherson and Goethe's succeeding literature.

The fourth story cycle is the so-called Book of the Kings or historical cycle. It is not a uniform work and includes several stories about semi-mythical, semi-historical kings of the past from the Book of Lecan, the Book of the dark-skinned Cow and the Book of Ballymote.

Best known are the kings Cormac Mac Airt and Niall Noigiallach, the founder of the dynasty of the Ó Neill. The last of the kings described is the quite historic Brian Boru, who reigned 1001-1040 and succeeded in defeating the Vikings and in expelling them from Ireland.

Now I want to inform you, of course, of the contents of these sagas, so that you know, what they have us to tell.
First, I want to turn to the Book of Conquests of Ireland, the Leabhar Gabhála. The compilation is on behalf of the many interspersed genealogies a bit lengthy, but if you overlook them, one obtains not only a quite interesting story of the settlement and cultivation of Ireland, but also a description of a world of gods, which reminds one of those of old Greece. The first settlers, or rather female settlers, because they were five hundred women, came with their ships to this island, led by Cessair, a sort of mother- or sea-goddess. The attachment to the Christian mythology and the Bible, which was of great importance for the authors, who were all monks, was achieved by making Cessair a granddaughter of Noah. Her grandfather did not want to admit her into his ark, so she and her entire entourage decided to search for their own God, looking for independence on board their ships and set sail. The storm drove them to the coast of Ireland, and they settled down in the country. The only three men among them were Cessairs husband Fintan, her father Bith, and the helmsman Ladra.

As the last two died and Fintan fled, Cessairs heart broke.

The people of her tribe died of a plague before the flood took place, only Fintan survived on a mountain peak. This is possibly a further addition of the monks, who believed the story to be too pagan. In another version, Cessair was in fact called Banba and belonged, together with Ériu and Fodla, to the three goddesses of the country. She too survived the Flood on the highest mountain and is also responsible for the prosperity of Ireland, which at that time had only three lakes and a plane.

The next wave of immigration was led by Partholon and derived from Greece or Sicily, where he had caused the death of his parents. Again, in an attempted attachment to the Bible, he is referred to as the son of Shem. He came with his wife Elgnat, five sons and his daughters in law. They cultivated Ireland, so that it now had seven lakes and four cleared plains, they plowed with the first plow, built the first house, founded the first festival hall and used the first cauldron. Also, the first duel and the first adultery, committed by Partholons wife, occurred at this time. Also the first confrontation took place with the arch-enemies of Ireland, the Fomoire, a kind of pirates or sea demons – Fomoire is supposed to mean something like "under the Sea" - who came from Lochlainn, which could have been Scotland or Norway.
Finally Partholons people died as a result of disease or poisoning as a punishment for his sins, which seems to be again a Christian addition. The only one, who survived, was Tuan Mac Cairil, whose story has many similarities with that of Cessairs husband Fintan, so that both appear to be the same person. Both undergo, during a period of a thousand years, a transformation into various mythical animals that are assigned to the following peoples and cultures, and are then reborn as a human, in order to be able to tell this story. Tuan is three hundred years a deer, which symbolizes the next invaders, the people of the Nemedians, then a boar (or a horse in the other version), which corresponds to the period of the Fir Bolg, as an eagle or a hawk he represents the time and the people of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and as a salmon he belongs to the age of the Gael.

The people of the Nemedians set foot on Ireland under the leadership of Nemed, which translates as "the Holy One, heavenly," from Irish "neamh”, heaven. They are said to be descended from the Scythians of Greece. Nemed himself had his wife Macha and his four sons with their wifes with him. After a great victory over the Fomoire they founded four other lakes, twelve deforested plains and two royal forts in Ireland.. As Nemed died of an illness, the Fomoire became overwhelming again and oppressed the people with heavy demands of tribute. In the subsequent uprising and war the Fomoire remained victorious, whereupon Nemeds people fled with their ships in the direction of their original home. The British in Britain are believed to originate from a son of Nemed. The descendants of the Nemedians, who returned to Greece and to the Black Sea, will then come back to Ireland as the next immigration wave and even that one after.

The next people, who immigrated into Ireland, were the Fir Bolg. Their name offers different interpretations:

They should be those Nemedians, who were forced to slave labour in Thrace and had to carry heavy bags, therefore, "the men of bags". It could also mean "men of spears or flashes" according to the spear of Cuchulainn, the "Gae Bulga," the "Spear of Lightning". Another possibility is a connection with the Belgae, a Celtic people, who migrated from northern France to the British Isles. The Fir Bolg divided Ireland into five provinces and founded the Irish kingship and social order. Their king, Eochaid Mac Erc, made righteousness the foundation of his way of government, their queen Tailltiu is often revered as a goddess of the country.

Particularly interesting are the following immigrants, the Tuatha Dé Danann, the people of the goddess Danu or Dana. They were – as mentioned before - also descendents of the Nemedian refugees and came from Scythia, Greece or islands in the sea north of Greece. They disposed of a very high culture, had a great knowledge and were enormously accomplished in magic, witchcraft and Druidism. From four cities on the mysterious, apparently mythical islands they brought with them their four sacred objects: the Sword of Light that was wielded by their king Nuadu from Findias in the east, the Burning Spear of Lugh from Gorias in the south, which had to be kept always in a container with a liquid, in order not to scorch anyone, the Cauldron of the Dagda, which originated from the city of Murias in the west and was filled miraculously again and again and gave to everyone what he needed, and the Stone of Fál, the stone of Destiny from Fálias in the North, which designated the future king by screaming out loudly when touched by him. These sacred objects appear again later in the legends of the Holy Grail, which obviously points to their origin in the myths of the Celtic gods. The Cauldron of plenty of the Dagda appears as the Holy Grail, the Burning Spear of Lugh was changed into the bleeding lance, the Stone of Destiny was developed into a silver plate, from the Sword of Light evolved the Broken Sword. Also in the tarot cards - much later - these symbols appear again: The Swords, The Staffs instead of The Lance, The Chalices instead of The Cauldron and The Coins instead of The Stone.

After landing, the Tuatha Dé Danann got naturally entangled in a conflict with the Fir Bolg, which they defeated in the first battle of Mag Tuireadh (Moytura). As a result they divided Ireland between them.

Among the Tuatha Dé Danann, there are to be found many great figures, from their description it is obvious, that they represent the former Celtic gods. Whether one sees in the people of the goddess Danu a historic immigration wave or a mythical hero-worship of a Celtic pantheon, or perhaps a combination of both, you can, at all events, clearly recognize and define a variety of Celtic gods.

Least comprehensible is Danu, the mother of the gods. She is in no ways humanized and seems to be a personification of cosmic forces and life-giving energies. She also appears as the goddess of the earth, nature and the land, which can be seen on the name of two hills in Southern Ireland, which are called the "Paps of Anu", the "Breasts of Anu", which is another form of Danu.

Very important is the god Dagda or the “Good God”, who is also called the "Great Father" or the "Mighty One with the great Knowledge". This is a kind of Jupiter figure who helps all and everything to thrive. He was a great king and chief druid, who possessed the cauldron of plenty, had a harp, with its sounds he could make people laugh, cry and want to sleep, and a club with its lower end bringing death and the upper end generating life. So he was also a kind of Lord of the Otherworld or the Beyond.

Another great king was Nuadu or Nuada, who owned the Sword of Light from which no one could escape. In the battle against the Fir Bolg, he lost an arm. Since he could not be king with this blemish, the beautiful Bres was elected in his place, whose father however was derived from the enemy, the Fomoire. Due to this he then betrayed the Tuatha Dé Danann to the Fomoire, who resumed again their oppression. Bres was deposed and changed sides to the Fomoire. Nuadu received an arm of silver from the great magical healer and physician Diancecht, whereupon he was given the title “Airgetlámh”, “Silverarm”, and became king again.

The Tuatha Dé Danann stood up against the Fomoire, and it came to the second battle of Mag Tuireadh (Moytura). Meanwhile, however, the beautiful young god Lugh arrived at the royal residence of Tara, where at this moment a feast was going on. His name means the "bright one" and his nickname Samildanach the "in all the arts versed". He was, therefore, a sun god, but also skilled in magic and witchcraft and in the martial arts, a kind of mixture of Apollo and Mercury. The gatekeeper in Tara asked him, what special art he mastered, because only if this was the case, he could be admitted. Of all the arts, which Lugh now mentioned, there was already a master present, so the guardian, however, stated, that they had one all along, and there was no need of a second. Only when Lugh enquired, if they had one, who, like himself, mastered all the arts simultaneously, he was admitted. He defeated Nuada in the game of Fidchell, a game of a kind of chess, who then conferred to him the royal seat and the leadership of the army in the forthcoming fight against the Fomoire. All outstanding personalities of the Tuatha Dé Danann sought now to ensure the victory through their special achievements. The two blacksmiths Goibniu and Credne forged magical weapons that could not be broken. The healer Diancecht prepared a magic fountain with herbs, into which the victims of the battle were thrown and after his magical incantations arose fully healed. The god Dagda united with the war goddess Morrigan, who conferred to his people her entire power and confused the enemies with a magic mist. This Morrigan was not only terrible and deadly, along with her sisters Nemain, the horror, and Badhbh Catha, the Raven of the battles, which ate the slain she could also appear erotic and life-giving and represents a kind of counterpoint to the threefold lovely goddess of the land, Ériu, Banba and Fodla.

Before the battle Lugh encircled the army, saying spells by standing on one leg and one eye covered. But the final victory was achieved by Lugh by shooting a red-hot sling stone – according to another version his burning spear - into the magical third eye on the forehead of the powerful, demonic Balor, king of the Fomoire and also his grandfather. This eye brought death and destruction on the enemies when Balor opened it, and Lugh hit it in such a way, that it looked out to the back of the head and brought death and destruction on Balors own people. After the Fomoire had been defeated, Lugh, Dagda and the mighty hero Ogma, who was versed in poetry and was the inventor of the Ogham-script, succeeded in regaining the harp of the Dagda, which had been stolen by the enemy. The former King Bres had to buy his life with the disclosure of the right moment for plowing, sowing and harvesting.

Another important God who is counted among the Tuatha Dé Danann, Manannan Mac Lir, is the son of the sea. He commands the horses of the waves that draw his charriot, he shows himself to people to grant them a special favor and reigns over an Otherworld beneath the sea.

One of the most important goddesses of the Tuatha Dé Danann is Bríd or Brigid, daughter of the Dagda. She was so important that she couldn´t be abolished by Christianisation, and she persisted as a saint Brigid, founder of the famous convent in Kildare, of whom have then been retold all the stories that had been attached as yet to the goddess Bríd.

She was more concerned with the practical human life than the Mother Goddess Danu, but combines many of her attributes with the properties of the triple goddess of the land, Ériu, Banba and Fodla. Cosmic is, for example, her star-strewn coat, with which she exerts a protective function overall and which she is able to hang up on a sunbeam. On the other hand she is connected with the function of a goddess of the land through her responsibility for the prosperity of crops and livestock. It is her very special unique feature, that she is both a goddess of fire and of water. In the first capacity, she is the saint of blacksmiths. And in her monastery in Kildare there was burning a sacred flame tended by 19 women up until the 11th century, to which no man had access, and the braided straw of the St. Brigid's Cross is a sun symbol. As a goddess of water countless sacred wells in Ireland, whose spring is said to have medicinal effects, are consecrated to her. She is also a healer and a prophet and the patroness of poets and bards.
The God Aengus should not be forgotten as well. He is the son of the Dagda and the river goddess Boann after whom the river Boyne is named. He was very handsome, young and amiable, and loved to operate as a peacemaker. He was above all a God of love, beauty and youth - hence his nickname Mac Og, Son of youth - and the patron of all lovers. Similar to Lugh, he is a kind of sun god, full of strength and power of mind, he is also the divine Son, the symbol of new life, who brings joy, love, light and peace to all. His father, the god Dagda, is outwitted by his definition of time, in which a day and a night means all eternity. With this he wins his father´s castle Brugh na Boinne, the still existing great megalithic grave-hill of Newgrange. This from huge stone blocks masterfully constructed building is designed in such a way, that, through a narrow window above the entrance, the first ray of the rising sun of the winter solstice on December 21^st illuminates through the whole long passage the inner chamber of the hill grave and the with sun symbols and spirals engraved stone blocks there, which clearly indicates a sun worship and is a suitable match for a sun god.

The story of Etain and Midir should not go unmentioned. Midir was the foster father of Aengus and also lived in a fairy mound of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He certainly had a divine character earlier, which indicates rather a fertility- and vegetation-god. Etain was his wife, who is described in the story as an extraordinary beauty. But Midir had been with another woman before, Fuamnach, who was a great magician. Through her jealousy of Etain she transformed her into an insect, a kind of fly or moth, purple in color, from which wonderful sounds could be heard. In order to convey her permanently out of reach of Midirs and Aengus’ rescue attempts, Fuamnach created fierce wind spells, which drove the unfortunate Etain far across the sea. She eventually ended up in the cup of the wife of the warrior Etar, was swallowed up by her, reborn as a girl and again called Etain. Later, she became the wife of Eochaid Airem, the High King of Tara. Midir tried to win her back, he approached her in the shape of Eochaid's brother, and carried her with him into his fairy mound, where he told her about their former married life and their love and he tried to convince her to stay with him, but she refused. Meanwhile Eochaid invaded Midirs fairy mound in search of her and was able to win her back by choosing the right one out from fifty similar looking women. Etain has traits of a sun goddess, but also reminds one of the goddess of the land by being of importance for the kingship. But her transformation and rebirth shows also a cosmic dimension, which refers to ideas of reincarnation.

The Tuatha Dé Danann could not enjoy very long the peace that followed after their victory over the Fomoire, for now the last of the great waves of immigration was coming. This is the clearly a Celtic language speaking people of the Gaels, who are said to have come from Scythia initially, but had lived long in Spain, where they embarked from its port Brigantia and landed with their ships in Ireland. They came under the leadership of Mil or Milesius and his sons, including Eremon, Thu, Eber, Ir and Amergin, the first poet and bard. The name Mil probably is derived from the Latin miles, soldier, and could actually point to a Spanish origin. His wife Scotta is once described as an Egyptian princess, on the other hand shall her name also derive from the Scythians. However, the name Scotti was originally used for the Irish themselves before it was conferred to the Scots, who were colonised by them. The name "Gaels" has its roots in a Celtic word that has the meaning of strong, powerful and exuberant.

When the Milesians or Gaels landed in southwestern Ireland, the poet and Druid Amergin sang, as he put his right foot on the ground, the well-known, traditional, obviously very old poem, in which he identifies himself with the phenomena of nature, which seems to assume a kind of metempsychosis:

"I am the wind that blows across the sea,
I am the wave of the ocean,
I am the sound of the tide,
I am the ox of seven fights,
I am the hawk, sitting on the rock,
I am the weapon of the sun,
I am the most beautiful plant,
I am the boar of valor,
I am the salmon in the water,
I am the lake on the plane.
I am the word of science,
I am the tip of the lance in the fray.
I am the God that ignites the fire of thought. "

The Tuatha Dé Danann answered to the invasion of the Gaels with heavy resistance. After the first victory of the Milesians, Amergin meets the three queens – actually goddesses - of the land, Ériu, Banba and Fodla. He promises each of them to preserve her name in the name of the country, the main eponymous however, should be Ériu, from which is actually derived today's Irish name of the island, Éire. With this magical act Amergin secured the favor of the goddess of the land, and obtained the right to colonize Ireland for his people.

At the royal seat of Tara it came to negotiations with the three kings, belonging to the goddesses, Mac Cecht, Mac Cuill and Mac Greine (the Son of the Plow, the Son of the Hazel and the Son of the Sun). Amergin accepted their award and led his people back to board the ships and to retreat behind the ninth wave.
However, when they wanted to land again, the Tuatha Dé Danann put a spell over the coast, which created a fog that made a landing impossible. But now Amergin implored the country Ireland itself:

"I call on the country of Ireland
Coursed by the fertile sea,
Fertile be the fruitful mountain,
Fruitful be the showery woods,
Showery is the flow of waterfalls,
of waterfalls be the lake with great depths,
of great depth is the well on the hill,
a well of the tribes be the assembly,
an assembly of the kings be Tara,
Tara be a hill of the tribes,
the tribes of the sons of Mil,
Mil of the ships and barges,
a lofty bark be Ireland,
Sublime Ireland, darkly sung,
a recitation of great wisdom:
the great wisdom of the women of Bres,
Women of Bres of Buaigne,
The great lady Ireland,
Eremon had her conquered,
Ir, Eber have called her
I call on the country of Ireland. "

"Ailiu iath nhÉrenn
hÉrmach muir mothach
mothach sliab srethach,
srethach caill cíthach
cíthach aub essach,
essach loch Lindmar,
Lindmar tór tipra,
tipra túath óenach,
óenach rig Temrach,
Temair tór túathach
túatha Mac Míled,
Míled long libern,
libern árd Ériu,
Ériu árd diglass,
díchetal rogáeth:
rogaes ban Breise,
Breise, ban Buaigne,
be adbul Ériu,
Éremón artus,
Ír, Éber ailsius.
Ailiu iath Érenn. "

and thus he caused the fog to be blown away by the wind. They landed, and in the subsequent battle of Tailltiu the Gaels were victorious. They now owned the land on the earth's surface, the Tuatha Dé Danann had to retreat to the land underground, which means the fairymounds, caves, barrows and hillforts, which are still regarded as the abodes of fairies and elves, who were originally the old gods.

The Gaels now ruled the island. One of their early, semi-mythical kings, Tuathal Techtmar, united the people and founded the highkingdom. But before I continue with the story of the kings, I want to discuss the two other major mythological cycles.

The Táin bó Cuailnge or the story of the cattle-raid of Cooley is also very interesting and exhibits some quite archaic features. Even the way in which it is written points to very old roots. The heroic character of the stories about the heroes fighting on chariots reminds one of the Greek epics and is supposed to refer to the time of Christ's birth. Essentially, it is the story of a major conflict between two kingdoms Connacht in the west of Ireland and Ulster in Northern Ireland. Queen Medhbh (Maeve) of Connacht was a strong, generous woman with her own army, even fighting herself in her own charriot. King Aillil, her husband, was chosen by her because he was neither jealous, nor covetous, nor cowardly. However, they had to remain equal to each other, and as the mythical white bull of Connacht was joined to the flock of King Aillil, Medhbh needed just such a bull for her own herd. She found it in the dark also mythical bull of Ulster. As all attempts to obtain it by purchase or cunning failed and ended up with an insult by the people of Ulster, it came to war.

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