The Religion of the Ancient Celts Part 7

[187] Cormac, _s.v._ "Neith"; D'Arbois, v. 400; _RC_ xii. 61.

[188] _LU_ 50. Tethra is glossed _badb_ (_IT_ i. 820).

[189] _IT_ i. 521; Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 274 f.

[190] _RC_ xii. 95.

[191] _RC_ xii. 101.

[192] See p. 374.

[193] D'Arbois, ii. 198, 375.

[194] _HL_ 90-91.

[195] _HL_ 274, 319, 643. For Beli, see p. 112, _infra_.

[196] Whatever the signification of the battle of Mag-tured may be, the place which it was localised is crowded with Neolithic megaliths, dolmens, etc. To later fancy these were the graves of warriors slain in a great battle fought there, and that battle became the fight between Fomorians and Tuatha De Dananns. Mag-tured may have been the scene of a battle between their respective wors.h.i.+ppers.

[197] O'Grady, ii. 203.

[198] It should be observed that, as in the Vedas, the Odyssey, the j.a.panese _Ko-ji-ki_, as well as in barbaric and savage mythologies, _Marchen_ formulae abound in the Irish mythological cycle.

CHAPTER V.

THE TUATHA De DANANN

The meaning formerly given to _Tuatha De Danann_ was "the men of science who were G.o.ds," _danann_ being here connected with _dan_, "knowledge."

But the true meaning is "the tribes _or_ folk of the G.o.ddess Danu,"[199]

which agrees with the cognates _Tuatha_ or _Fir Dea_, "tribes _or_ men of the G.o.ddess." The name was given to the group, though Danu had only three sons, Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharbar. Hence the group is also called _fir tri ndea_, "men of the three G.o.ds."[200] The equivalents in Welsh story of Danu and her folk are Don and her children. We have seen that though they are described as kings and warriors by the annalists, traces of their divinity appear. In the Cuchulainn cycle they are supernatural beings and sometimes demons, helping or harming men, and in the Fionn cycle all these characteristics are ascribed to them. But the theory which prevailed most is that which connected them with the hills or mounds, the last resting-places of the mighty dead. Some of these bore their names, while other beings were also a.s.sociated with the mounds (_sid_)--Fomorians and Milesian chiefs, heroes of the sagas, or those who had actually been buried in them.[201] Legend told how, after the defeat of the G.o.ds, the mounds were divided among them, the method of division varying in different versions. In an early version the Tuatha De Danann are immortal and the Dagda divides the _sid_.[202] But in a poem of Flann Manistrech (_ob._ 1056) they are mortals and die.[203] Now follows a regular chronology giving the dates of their reigns and their deaths, as in the poem of Gilla Coemain (eleventh century).[204] Hence another legend told how, Dagda being dead, Bodb Dearg divided the _sid_, yet even here Manannan is said to have conferred immortality upon the Tuatha De Danann.[205] The old pagan myths had shown that G.o.ds might die, while in ritual their representatives were slain, and this may have been the starting-point of the euhemerising process. But the divinity of the Tuatha De Danann is still recalled. Eochaid O'Flynn (tenth century), doubtful whether they are men or demons, concludes, "though I have treated of these deities in order, yet have I not adored them."[206]

Even in later times they were still thought of as G.o.ds in exile, a view which appears in the romantic tales and sagas existing side by side with the notices of the annalists. They were also regarded as fairy kings and queens, and yet fairies of a different order from those of ordinary tradition. They are "fairies or sprites with corporeal forms, endowed with immortality," and yet also _dei terreni_ or _side_ wors.h.i.+pped by the folk before the coming of S. Patrick. Even the saint and several bishops were called by the fair pagan daughters of King Loegaire, _fir side_, "men of the _sid_," that is, G.o.ds.[207] The _sid_ were named after the names of the Tuatha De Danann who reigned in them, but the tradition being localised in different places, several mounds were sometimes connected with one G.o.d. The _sid_ were marvellous underground palaces, full of strange things, and thither favoured mortals might go for a time or for ever. In this they correspond exactly to the oversea Elysium, the divine land.

But why were the Tuatha De Danann a.s.sociated with the mounds? If fairies or an a.n.a.logous race of beings were already in pagan times connected with hills or mounds, G.o.ds now regarded as fairies would be connected with them. Dr. Joyce and O'Curry think that an older race of aboriginal G.o.ds or _sid-folk_ preceded the Tuatha Dea in the mounds.[208] These may have been the Fomorians, the "champions of the _sid_," while in _Mesca Ulad_ the Tuatha Dea go to the underground dwellings and speak with the _side_ already there. We do not know that the fairy creed as such existed in pagan times, but if the _side_ and the Tuatha De Danann were once distinct, they were gradually a.s.similated. Thus the Dagda is called "king of the _side_"; Aed Abrat and his daughters, Fand and Liban, and Labraid, Liban's husband, are called _side_, and Manannan is Fand's consort.[209] Labraid's island, like the _sid_ of Mider and the land to which women of the _side_ invite Connla, differs but little from the usual divine Elysium, while Mider, one of the _side_, is a.s.sociated with the Tuatha De Danann.[210] The _side_ are once said to be female, and are frequently supernatural women who run away or marry mortals.[211]

Thus they may be a reminiscence of old Earth G.o.ddesses. But they are not exclusively female, since there are kings of the _side_, and as the name _Fir side_, "men of the _side_," shows, while S. Patrick and his friends were taken for _sid_-folk.

The formation of the legend was also aided by the old cult of the G.o.ds on heights, some of them sepulchral mounds, and now occasionally sites of Christian churches.[212] The Irish G.o.d Cenn Cruaich and his Welsh equivalent Penn Cruc, whose name survives in _Pennocrucium_, have names meaning "chief _or_ head of the mound."[213] Other mounds or hills had also a sacred character. Hence G.o.ds wors.h.i.+pped at mounds, dwelling or revealing themselves there, still lingered in the haunted spots; they became fairies, or were a.s.sociated with the dead buried in the mounds, as fairies also have been, or were themselves thought to have died and been buried there. The haunting of the mounds by the old G.o.ds is seen in a prayer of S. Columba's, who begs G.o.d to dispel "this host (i.e. the old G.o.ds) around the cairns that reigneth."[214] An early MS also tells how the Milesians allotted the underground part of Erin to the Tuatha Dea who now retired within the hills; in other words, they were G.o.ds of the hills wors.h.i.+pped by the Milesians on hills.[215] But, as we shall see, the G.o.ds dwelt elsewhere than in hills.[216]

Tumuli may already in pagan times have been pointed out as tombs of G.o.ds who died in myth or ritual, like the tombs of Zeus in Crete and of Osiris in Egypt. Again, fairies, in some aspects, are ghosts of the dead, and haunt tumuli; hence, when G.o.ds became fairies they would do the same. And once they were thought of as dead kings, any notable tumuli would be pointed out as theirs, since it is a law in folk-belief to a.s.sociate tumuli or other structures not with the dead or with their builders, but with supernatural or mythical or even historical personages. If _side_ ever meant "ghosts," it would be easy to call the dead G.o.ds by this name, and to connect them with the places of the dead.[217]

Many strands went to the weaving of the later conception of the G.o.ds, but there still hung around them an air of mystery, and the belief that they were a race of men was never consistent with itself.

Danu gave her name to the whole group of G.o.ds, and is called their mother, like the Egyptian Neith or the Semitic Ishtar.[218] In the annalists she is daughter of Dagda, and has three sons. She may be akin to the G.o.ddess Anu, whom Cormac describes as "_mater deorum hibernensium_. It was well she nursed the G.o.ds." From her name he derives _ana_, "plenty," and two hills in Kerry are called "the Paps of Anu."[219] Thus as a G.o.ddess of plenty Danu or Anu may have been an early Earth-mother, and what may be a dim memory of Anu in Leicesters.h.i.+re confirms this view. A cave on the Dane Hills is called "Black Annis' Bower," and she is said to have been a savage woman who devoured human victims.[220] Earth-G.o.ddesses usually have human victims, and Anu would be no exception. In the cult of Earth divinities Earth and under-Earth are practically identical, while Earth-G.o.ddesses like Demeter and Persephone were a.s.sociated with the underworld, the dead being Demeter's folk. The fruits of the earth with their roots below the surface are then gifts of the earth- or under-earth G.o.ddess. This may have been the case with Danu, for in Celtic belief the gifts of civilisation came from the underworld or from the G.o.ds. Professor Rh[^y]s finds the name Anu in the dat. _Anoniredi_, "chariot of Anu," in an inscription from Vaucluse, and the identification is perhaps established by the fact that G.o.ddesses of fertility were drawn through the fields in a vehicle.[221] Cormac also mentions Buanann as mother and nurse of heroes, perhaps a G.o.ddess wors.h.i.+pped by heroes.[222]

Danu is also identified with Brigit, G.o.ddess of knowledge (_dan_), perhaps through a folk-etymology. She was wors.h.i.+pped by poets, and had two sisters of the same name connected with leechcraft and smithwork.[223] They are duplicates or local forms of Brigit, a G.o.ddess of culture and of poetry, so much loved by the Celts. She is thus the equivalent of the Gaulish G.o.ddess equated with Minerva by Caesar, and found on inscriptions as Minerva Belisama and Brigindo. She is the Dea Brigantia of British inscriptions.[224] One of the seats of her wors.h.i.+p was the land of the Brigantes, of whom she was the eponymous G.o.ddess, and her name (cf. Ir. _brig_, "power" or "craft"; Welsh _bri_, "honour,"

"renown") suggests her high functions. But her popularity is seen in the continuation of her personality and cult in those of S. Brigit, at whose shrine in Kildare a sacred fire, which must not be breathed on, or approached by a male, was watched daily by nineteen nuns in turn, and on the twentieth day by the saint herself.[225] Similar sacred fires were kept up in other monasteries,[226] and they point to the old cult of a G.o.ddess of fire, the nuns being successors of a virgin priesthood like the vestals, priestesses of Vesta. As has been seen, the G.o.ddesses Belisama and Sul, probably G.o.ddesses of fire, resembled Brigit in this.[227] But Brigit, like Vesta, was at once a G.o.ddess of fire and of fertility, as her connection with Candlemas and certain ritual survivals also suggest. In the Hebrides on S. Bride's day (Candlemas-eve) women dressed a sheaf of oats in female clothes and set it with a club in a basket called "Briid's bed." Then they called, "Briid is come, Briid is welcome." Or a bed was made of corn and hay with candles burning beside it, and Bride was invited to come as her bed was ready. If the mark of the club was seen in the ashes, this was an omen of a good harvest and a prosperous year.[228] It is also noteworthy that if cattle cropped the gra.s.s near S. Brigit's shrine, next day it was as luxuriant as ever.

Brigit, or G.o.ddesses with similar functions, was regarded by the Celts as an early teacher of civilisation, inspirer of the artistic, poetic, and mechanical faculties, as well as a G.o.ddess of fire and fertility. As such she far excelled her sons, G.o.ds of knowledge. She must have originated in the period when the Celts wors.h.i.+pped G.o.ddesses rather than G.o.ds, and when knowledge--leechcraft, agriculture, inspiration--were women's rather than men's. She had a female priesthood, and men were perhaps excluded from her cult, as the tabued shrine at Kildare suggests. Perhaps her fire was fed from sacred oak wood, for many shrines of S. Brigit were built under oaks, doubtless displacing pagan shrines of the G.o.ddess.[229] As a G.o.ddess, Brigit is more prominent than Danu, also a G.o.ddess of fertility, even though Danu is mother of the G.o.ds.

Other G.o.ddesses remembered in tradition are Cleena and Vera, celebrated in fairy and witch lore, the former perhaps akin to a river-G.o.ddess Clota, the Clutoida (a fountain-nymph) of the continental Celts; the latter, under her alternative name Dirra, perhaps a form of a G.o.ddess of Gaul, Dirona.[230] Aine, one of the great fairy-queens of Ireland, has her seat at Knockainy in Limerick, where rites connected with her former cult are still performed for fertility on Midsummer eve. If they were neglected she and her troops performed them, according to local legend.[231] She is thus an old G.o.ddess of fertility, whose cult, even at a festival in which G.o.ds were latterly more prominent, is still remembered. She is also a.s.sociated with the waters as a water-nymph captured for a time as a fairy-bride by the Earl of Desmond.[232] But older legends connect her with the _sid_. She was daughter of Eogabal, king of the _sid_ of Knockainy, the gra.s.s on which was annually destroyed at Samhain by his people, because it had been taken from them, its rightful owners. Oilill Olomm and Ferchus resolved to watch the _sid_ on Samhain-eve. They saw Eogabal and Aine emerge from it. Ferchus killed Eogabal, and Oilill tried to outrage Aine, who bit the flesh from his ear. Hence his name of "Bare Ear."[233] In this legend we see how earlier G.o.ds of fertility come to be regarded as hostile to growth.

Another story tells of the love of Aillen, Eogabal's son, for Manannan's wife and that of Aine for Manannan. Aine offered her favours to the G.o.d if he would give his wife to her brother, and "the complicated bit of romance," as S. Patrick calls it, was thus arranged.[234]

Although the Irish G.o.ds are warriors, and there are special war-G.o.ds, yet war-G.o.ddesses are more prominent, usually as a group of three--Morrigan, Neman, and Macha. A fourth, Badb, sometimes takes the place of one of these, or is identical with Morrigan, or her name, like that of Morrigan, may be generic.[235] _Badb_ means "a scald-crow,"

under which form the war-G.o.ddesses appeared, probably because these birds were seen near the slain. She is also called Badbcatha, "battle-Badb," and is thus the equivalent of _-athubodua,_ or, more probably, _Cathubodua_, mentioned in an inscription from Haute-Savoie, while this, as well as personal names like _Boduogenos_, shows that a G.o.ddess Bodua was known to the Gauls.[236] The _badb_ or battle-crow is a.s.sociated with the Fomorian Tethra, but Badb herself is consort of a war-G.o.d Net, one of the Tuatha De Danann, who may be the equivalent of Neton, mentioned in Spanish inscriptions and equated with Mars.

Elsewhere Neman is Net's consort, and she may be the Nemetona of inscriptions, e.g. at Bath, the consort of Mars. Cormac calls Net and Neman "a venomous couple," which we may well believe them to have been.[237] To Macha were devoted the heads of slain enemies, "Macha's mast," but she, according to the annalists, was slain at Mag-tured, though she reappears in the Cuchulainn saga as the Macha whose ill-treatment led to the "debility" of the Ulstermen.[238] The name Morrigan may mean "great queen," though Dr. Stokes, connecting _mor_ with the same syllable in "Fomorian," explains it as "nightmare-queen."[239] She works great harm to the Fomorians at Mag-tured, and afterwards proclaims the victory to the hills, rivers, and fairy-hosts, uttering also a prophecy of the evils to come at the end of time.[240] She reappears prominently in the Cuchulainn saga, hostile to the hero because he rejects her love, yet aiding the hosts of Ulster and the Brown Bull, and in the end trying to prevent the hero's death.[241]

The prominent position of these G.o.ddesses must be connected with the fact that women went out to war--a custom said to have been stopped by Ad.a.m.nan at his mother's request, and that many prominent heroines of the heroic cycles are warriors, like the British Boudicca, whose name may be connected with _boudi_, "victory." Specific t.i.tles were given to such cla.s.ses of female warriors--_bangaisgedaig_, _banfeinnidi_, etc.[242]

But it is possible that these G.o.ddesses were at first connected with fertility, their functions changing with the growing warlike tendencies of the Celts. Their number recalls that of the threefold _Matres_, and possibly the change in their character is hinted in the Romano-British inscription at Benwell to the _Lamiis Tribus_, since Morrigan's name is glossed _lamia_.[243] She is also identified with Anu, and is mistress of Dagda, an Earth-G.o.d, and with Badb and others expels the Fomorians when they destroyed the agricultural produce of Ireland.[244] Probably the scald-crow was at once the symbol and the incarnation of the war-G.o.ddesses, who resemble the Norse Valkyries, appearing sometimes as crows, and the Greek Keres, bird-like beings which drank the blood of the slain. It is also interesting to note that Badb, who has the character of a prophetess of evil, is often identified with the "Washer at the Ford," whose presence indicates death to him whose armour or garments she seems to cleanse.[245]

The _Matres_, G.o.ddesses of fertility, do not appear by name in Ireland, but the triplication of such G.o.ddesses as Morrigan and Brigit, the threefold name of Dagda's wife, or the fact that Arm, Danu, and Buanan are called "mothers," while Buanan's name is sometimes rendered "good mother," may suggest that such grouped G.o.ddesses were not unknown. Later legend knows of white women who a.s.sist in spinning, or three hags with power over nature, or, as in the _Battle of Ventry_, of three supernatural women who fall in love with Conncrithir, aid him in fight, and heal his wounds. In this doc.u.ment and elsewhere is mentioned the "_sid_ of the White Women."[246] G.o.ddesses of fertility are usually G.o.ddesses of love, and the prominence given to females among the _side_, the fact that they are often called _Be find_, "White Women," like fairies who represent the _Matres_ elsewhere, and that they freely offer their love to mortals, may connect them with this group of G.o.ddesses.

Again, when the Milesians arrived in Ireland, three kings of the Tuatha Dea had wives called Eriu, Banba, and Fotla, who begged that Ireland should be called after them. This was granted, but only Eriu (Erin) remained in general use.[247] The story is an aetiological myth explaining the names of Ireland, but the three wives may be a group like the _Matres_, guardians of the land which took its name from them.

Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, who give a t.i.tle to the whole group, are called _tri dee Donand_, "the three G.o.ds (sons of) Danu," or, again, "G.o.ds of _dan_" (knowledge), perhaps as the result of a folk-etymology, a.s.sociating _dan_ with their mother's name Danu.[248] Various attributes are personified as their descendants, Wisdom being son of all three.[249] Though some of these attributes may have been actual G.o.ds, especially Ecne or Wisdom, yet it is more probable that the personification is the result of the subtleties of bardic science, of which similar examples occur.[250] On the other hand, the fact that Ecne is the son of three brothers, may recall some early practice of polyandry of which instances are met with in the sagas.[251] M. D'Arbois has suggested that Iuchar and Iucharba are mere duplicates of Brian, who usually takes the leading place, and he identifies them with three kings of the Tuatha Dea reigning at the time of the Milesian invasion-- MacCuill, MacCecht, and MacGrainne, so called, according to Keating, because the hazel (_coll_), the plough (_cecht_), and the sun (_grian_) were "G.o.ds of wors.h.i.+p" to them. Both groups are grandsons of Dagda, and M. D'Arbois regards this second group as also triplicates of one G.o.d, because their wives Fotla, Banba, and Eriu all bear names of Ireland itself, are personifications of the land, and thus may be "reduced to unity."[252] While this reasoning is ingenious, it should be remembered that we must not lay too much stress upon Irish divine genealogies, while each group of three may have been similar local G.o.ds a.s.sociated at a later time as brothers. Their separate personality is suggested by the fact that the Tuatha De Danann are called after them "the Men of the Three G.o.ds," and their supremacy appears in the incident of Dagda, Lug, and Ogma consulting them before the fight at Mag-tured--a natural proceeding if they were G.o.ds of knowledge or destiny.[253] The brothers are said to have slain the G.o.d Cian, and to have been themselves slain by Lug, and on this seems to have been based the story of _The Children of Tuirenn_, in which they perish through their exertions in obtaining the _eric_ demanded by Lug.[254] Here they are sons of Tuirenn, but more usually their mother Danu or Brigit is mentioned.

Another son of Brigit's was Ogma, master of poetry and inventor of _ogham_ writing, the word being derived from his name.[255] It is more probable that Ogma's name is a derivative from some word signifying "speech" or "writing," and that the connection with "ogham" may be a mere folk-etymology. Ogma appears as the champion of the G.o.ds,[256] a position given him perhaps from the primitive custom of rousing the warriors' emotions by eloquent speeches before a battle. Similarly the Babylonian Marduk, "seer of the G.o.ds," was also their champion in fight.

Ogma fought and died at Mag-tured; but in other accounts he survives, captures Tethra's sword, goes on the quest for Dagda's harp, and is given a _sid_ after the Milesian victory. Ogma's counterpart in Gaul is Ogmios, a Herakles and a G.o.d of eloquence, thus bearing the dual character of Ogma, while Ogma's epithet _grianainech_, "of the smiling countenance," recalls Lucian's account of the "smiling face" of Ogmios.[257] Ogma's high position is the result of the admiration of bardic eloquence among the Celts, whose loquacity was proverbial, and to him its origin was doubtless ascribed, as well as that of poetry. The genealogists explain his relations.h.i.+p to the other divinities in different ways, but these confusions may result from the fact that G.o.ds had more than one name, of which the annalists made separate personalities. Most usually Ogma is called Brigit's son. Her functions were like his own, but in spite of the increasing supremacy of G.o.ds over G.o.ddesses, he never really eclipsed her.

Among other culture G.o.ds were those a.s.sociated with the arts and crafts--the development of Celtic art in metal-work necessitating the existence of G.o.ds of this art. Such a G.o.d is Goibniu, eponymous G.o.d of smiths (Old Ir. _goba_, "smith"), and the divine craftsman at the battle of Mag-tured, making spears which never failed to kill.[258] Smiths have everywhere been regarded as uncanny--a tradition surviving from the first introduction of metal among those hitherto accustomed to stone weapons and tools. S. Patrick prayed against the "spells of women, smiths, and Druids," and it is thus not surprising to find that Goibniu had a reputation for magic, even among Christians. A spell for making b.u.t.ter, in an eighth century MS. preserved at S. Gall, appeals to his "science."[259] Curiously enough, Goibniu is also connected with the culinary art in myth, and, like Hephaistos, prepares the feast of the G.o.ds, while his ale preserves their immortality.[260] The elation produced by heady liquors caused them to be regarded as draughts of immortality, like Soma, Haoma, or nectar. Goibniu survives in tradition as the _Gobhan Saer_, to whom the building of round towers is ascribed.

Another G.o.d of crafts was Creidne the brazier (Ir. _cerd_, "artificer"; cf. Scots _caird_, "tinker"), who a.s.sisted in making a silver hand for Nuada, and supplied with magical rapidity parts of the weapons used at Mag-tured.[261] According to the annalists, he was drowned while bringing golden ore from Spain.[262] Luchtine, G.o.d of carpenters, provided spear-handles for the battle, and with marvellous skill flung them into the sockets of the spear-heads.[263]

Diancecht, whose name may mean "swift in power," was G.o.d of medicine, and, with Creidne's help, fas.h.i.+oned a silver hand for Nuada.[264] His son Miach replaced this by a magic restoration of the real hand, and in jealousy his father slew him--a version of the _Marchen_ formula of the jealous master. Three hundred and sixty-five herbs grew from his grave, and were arranged according to their properties by his sister Airmed, but Diancecht again confused them, "so that no one knows their proper cures."[265] At the second battle of Mag-tured, Diancecht presided over a healing-well containing magic herbs. These and the power of spells caused the mortally wounded who were placed in it to recover. Hence it was called "the spring of health."[266] Diancecht, a.s.sociated with a healing-well, may be cognate with Grannos. He is also referred to in the S. Gall MS., where his healing powers are extolled.

An early chief of the G.o.ds is Dagda, who, in the story of the battle of Mag-tured, is said to be so called because he promised to do more than all the other G.o.ds together. Hence they said, "It is thou art the _good hand_" (_dag-dae_). The _Coir Anmann_ explains _Dagda_ as "fire of G.o.d"

(_daig_ and _dea_). The true derivation is from _dagos_, "good," and _deivos_, "G.o.d," though Dr. Stokes considers _Dagda_ as connected with _dagh_, whence _daghda_, "cunning."[267] Dagda is also called Cera, a word perhaps derived from _kar_ and connected with Lat. _cerus_, "creator" and other names of his are _Ruad-rofhessa_, "lord of great knowledge," and _Eochaid Ollathair_, "great father," "for a great father to the Tuatha De Danann was he."[268] He is also called "a beautiful G.o.d," and "the princ.i.p.al G.o.d of the pagans."[269] After the battle he divides the _brugs_ or _sid_ among the G.o.ds, but his son Oengus, having been omitted, by a stratagem succeeded in ousting his father from his _sid_, over which he now himself reigned[270]--possibly the survival of an old myth telling of a superseding of Dagda's cult by that of Oengus, a common enough occurrence in all religions. In another version, Dagda being dead, Bodb Dearg divides the _sid_, and Manannan makes the Tuatha Dea invisible and immortal. He also helps Oengus to drive out his foster-father Elemar from his _brug_, where Oengus now lives as a G.o.d.[271] The underground _brugs_ are the G.o.ds' land, in all respects resembling the oversea Elysium, and at once burial-places of the euhemerised G.o.ds and local forms of the divine land. Professor Rh[^y]s regards Dagda as an atmospheric G.o.d; Dr. MacBain sees in him a sky-G.o.d.

More probably he is an early Earth-G.o.d and a G.o.d of agriculture. He has power over corn and milk, and agrees to prevent the other G.o.ds from destroying these after their defeat by the Milesians--former beneficent G.o.ds being regarded as hurtful, a not uncommon result of the triumph of a new faith.[272] Dagda is called "the G.o.d of the earth" "because of the greatness of his power."[273] Mythical objects a.s.sociated with him suggest plenty and fertility--his cauldron which satisfied all comers, his unfailing swine, one always living, the other ready for cooking, a vessel of ale, and three trees always laden with fruit. These were in his _sid_, where none ever tasted death;[274] hence his _sid_ was a local Elysium, not a gloomy land of death, but the underworld in its primitive aspect as the place of G.o.ds of fertility. In some myths he appears with a huge club or fork, and M. D'Arbois suggests that he may thus be an equivalent of the Gaulish G.o.d with the mallet.[275] This is probable, since the Gaulish G.o.d may have been a form of Dispater, an Earth or under-Earth G.o.d of fertility.

If Dagda was a G.o.d of fertility, he may have been an equivalent of a G.o.d whose image was called _Cenn_ or _Cromm Cruaich_, "Head _or_ Crooked One of the Mound," or "b.l.o.o.d.y Head _or_ Crescent."[276] Vallancey, citing a text now lost, says that _Crom-eocha_ was a name of Dagda, and that a motto at the sacrificial place at Tara read, "Let the altar ever blaze to Dagda."[277] These statements may support this identification. The cult of Cromm is preserved in some verses:

"He was their G.o.d, The withered Cromm with many mists...

To him without glory They would kill their piteous wretched offspring, With much wailing and peril, To pour their blood around Cromm Cruaich.

Milk and corn They would ask from him speedily In return for a third of their healthy issue, Great was the horror and fear of him.

To him n.o.ble Gaels would prostrate themselves."[278]

Elsewhere we learn that this sacrifice in return for the gifts of corn and milk from the G.o.d took place at Samhain, and that on one occasion the violent prostrations of the wors.h.i.+ppers caused three-fourths of them to die. Again, "they beat their palms, they pounded their bodies ...

they shed falling showers of tears."[279] These are reminiscences of orgiastic rites in which pain and pleasure melt into one. The G.o.d must have been a G.o.d of fertility; the blood of the victims was poured on the image, the flesh, as in a.n.a.logous savage rites and folk-survivals, may have been buried in the fields to promote fertility. If so, the victims'

flesh was instinct with the power of the divinity, and, though their number is obviously exaggerated, several victims may have taken the place of an earlier slain representative of the G.o.d. A mythic _Crom Dubh_, "Black Crom," whose festival occurs on the first Sunday in August, may be another form of Cromm Cruaich. In one story the name is transferred to S. Patrick's servant, who is asked by the fairies when they will go to Paradise. "Not till the day of judgment," is the answer, and for this they cease to help men in the processes of agriculture. But in a variant Manannan bids Crom ask this question, and the same result follows.[280] These tales thus enshrine the idea that Crom and the fairies were ancient G.o.ds of growth who ceased to help men when they deserted them for the Christian faith. If the sacrifice was offered at the August festival, or, as the texts suggest, at Samhain, after harvest, it must have been on account of the next year's crop, and the flesh may have been mingled with the seed corn.

Dagda may thus have been a G.o.d of growth and fertility. His wife or mistress was the river-G.o.ddess, Boand (the Boyne),[281] and the children ascribed to him were Oengus, Bodb Dearg, Danu, Brigit, and perhaps Ogma.

The euhemerists made him die of Cethlenn's venom, long after the battle of Mag-tured in which he encountered her.[282] Irish mythology is remarkably free from obscene and grotesque myths, but some of these cl.u.s.ter round Dagda. We hear of the Gargantuan meal provided for him in sport by the Fomorians, and of which he ate so much that "not easy was it for him to move and unseemly was his apparel," as well as his conduct with a Fomorian beauty. Another amour of his was with Morrigan, the place where it occurred being still known as "The Couple's Bed."[283] In another tale Dagda acts as cook to Conaire the great.[284]

The beautiful and fascinating Oengus is sometimes called _Mac Ind Oc_, "Son of the Young Ones," i.e. Dagda and Boand, or _In Mac Oc_, "The Young Son." This name, like the myth of his disinheriting his father, may point to his cult superseding that of Dagda. If so, he may then have been affiliated to the older G.o.d, as was frequently done in parallel cases, e.g. in Babylon. Oengus may thus have been the high G.o.d of some tribe who a.s.sumed supremacy, ousting the high G.o.d of another tribe, unless we suppose that Dagda was a pre-Celtic G.o.d with functions similar to those of Oengus, and that the Celts adopted his cult but gave that of Oengus a higher place. In one myth the supremacy of Oengus is seen.

After the first battle of Mag-tured, Dagda is forced to become the slave of Bres, and is much annoyed by a lampooner who extorts the best pieces of his rations. Following the advice of Oengus, he not only causes the lampooner's death, but triumphs over the Fomorians.[285] On insufficient grounds, mainly because he was patron of Diarmaid, beloved of women, and because his kisses became birds which whispered love thoughts to youths and maidens, Oengus has been called the Eros of the Gaels. More probably he was primarily a supreme G.o.d of growth, who occasionally suffered eclipse during the time of death in nature, like Tammuz and Adonis, and this may explain his absence from Mag-tured. The beautiful story of his vision of a maiden with whom he fell violently in love contains too many _Marchen_ formulae to be of any mythological or religious value. His mother Boand caused search to be made for her, but without avail. At last she was discovered to be the daughter of a semi-divine lord of a _sid_, but only through the help of mortals was the secret of how she could be taken wrung from him. She was a swan-maiden, and on a certain day only would Oengus obtain her. Ultimately she became his wife. The story is interesting because it shows how the G.o.ds occasionally required mortal aid.[286]

Equally influenced by _Marchen_ formulae is the story of Oengus and Etain. Etain and Fuamnach were wives of Mider, but Fuamnach was jealous of Etain, and transformed her into an insect. In this shape Oengus found her, and placed her in a gla.s.s _grianan_ or bower filled with flowers, the perfume of which sustained her. He carried the _grianan_ with him wherever he went, but Fuamnach raised a magic wind which blew Etain away to the roof of Etair, a n.o.ble of Ulster. She fell through a smoke-hole into a golden cup of wine, and was swallowed by Etair's wife, of whom she was reborn.[287] Professor Rh[^y]s resolves all this into a sun and dawn myth. Oengus is the sun, Etain the dawn, the _grianan_ the expanse of the sky.[288] But the dawn does not grow stronger with the sun's influence, as Etain did under that of Oengus. At the sun's appearance the dawn begins