The Religion of the Ancient Celts Part 8

"to faint in the light of the sun she loves, To faint in his light and to die."

The whole story is built up on the well-known _Mrchen_ formulae of the "True Bride" and the "Two Brothers," but accommodated to well-known mythic personages, and the _grianan_ is the Celtic equivalent of various objects in stories of the "Cinderella" type, in which the heroine conceals herself, the object being bought by the hero and kept in his room.[289] Thus the tale reveals nothing of Etain's divine functions, but it ill.u.s.trates the method of the "mythological" school in discovering sun-heroes and dawn-maidens in any incident, mythical or not.

Oengus appears in the Fionn cycle as the fosterer and protector of Diarmaid.[290] With Mider, Bodb, and Morrigan, he expels the Fomorians when they destroy the corn, fruit, and milk of the Tuatha De Danann.[291] This may point to his functions as a G.o.d of fertility.

Although Mider appears mainly as a king of the _side_ and ruler of the _brug_ of Bri Leith, he is also connected with the Tuatha Dea.[292]

Learning that Etain had been reborn and was now married to King Eochaid, he recovered her from him, but lost her again when Eochaid attacked his _brug_. He was ultimately avenged in the series of tragic events which led to the death of Eochaid's descendant Conaire. Though his _sid_ is located in Ireland, it has so much resemblance to Elysium that Mider must be regarded as one of its lords. Hence he appears as ruler of the Isle of Falga, i.e. the Isle of Man regarded as Elysium. Thence his daughter Blathnat, his magical cows and cauldron, were stolen by Cuchulainn and Curoi, and his three cranes from Bri Leith by Aitherne[293]--perhaps distorted versions of the myths which told how various animals and gifts came from the G.o.d's land. Mider may be the Irish equivalent of a local Gaulish G.o.d, Medros, depicted on bas-reliefs with a cow or bull.[294]

The victory of the Tuatha Dea at the first battle of Mag-tured, in June, their victory followed, however, by the deaths of many of them at the second battle in November, may point to old myths dramatising the phenomena of nature, and connected with the ritual of summer and winter festivals. The powers of light and growth are in the ascendant in summer; they seem to die in winter. Christian euhemerists made use of these myths, but regarded the G.o.ds as warriors who were slain, not as those who die and revive again. At the second battle, Nuada loses his life; at the first, though his forces are victorious, his hand was cut off by the Fomorian Sreng, for even when victorious the G.o.ds must suffer. A silver hand was made for him by Diancecht, and hence he was called Nuada _Argetlam_, "of the silver hand." Professor Rh[^y]s regards him as a Celtic Zeus, partly because he is king of the Tuatha De Danann, partly because he, like Zeus or Tyr, who lost tendons or a hand through the wiles of evil G.o.ds, is also maimed.[295] Similarly in the _Rig-Veda_ the Acvins subst.i.tute a leg of iron for the leg of Vispala, cut off in battle, and the sun is called "golden-handed" because Savitri cut off his hand and the priests replaced it by one of gold. The myth of Nuada's hand may have arisen from primitive attempts at replacing lopped-off limbs, as well as from the fact that no Irish king must have any bodily defect, or possibly because an image of Nuada may have lacked a hand or possessed one of silver. Images were often maimed or given artificial limbs, and myths then arose to explain the custom.[296] Nuada appears to be a G.o.d of life and growth, but he is not a sun-G.o.d. His Welsh equivalent is Llud Llawereint, or "silver-handed," who delivers his people from various scourges. His daughter Creidylad is to be wedded to Gwythur, but is kidnapped by Gwyn. Arthur decides that they must fight for her yearly on 1st May until the day of judgment, when the victor would gain her hand.[297] Professor Rh[^y]s regards Creidylad as a Persephone, wedded alternately to light and dark divinities.[298] But the story may rather be explanatory of such ritual acts as are found in folk-survivals in the form of fights between summer and winter, in which a Queen of May figures, and intended to a.s.sist the conflict of the G.o.ds of growth with those of blight.[299] Creidylad is daughter of a probable G.o.d of growth, nor is it impossible that the story of the battle of Mag-tured is based on mythic explanations of such ritual combats.

The Brythons wors.h.i.+pped Nuada as Nodons in Romano-British times. The remains of his temple exist near the mouth of the Severn, and the G.o.d may have been equated with Mars, though certain symbols seem to connect him with the waters as a kind of Neptune.[300] An Irish mythic poet Nuada Necht may be the Nechtan who owned a magic well whence issued the Boyne, and was perhaps a water-G.o.d. If such a water-G.o.d was a.s.sociated with Nuada, he and Nodons might be a Celtic Neptune.[301] But the relations.h.i.+p and functions of these various personages are obscure, nor is it certain that Nodons was equated with Neptune or that Nuada was a water-G.o.d. His name may be cognate with words meaning "growth,"

"possession," "harvest," and this supports the view taken here of his functions.[302] The Welsh Nudd Hael, or "the Generous," who possessed a herd of 21,000 milch kine, may be a memory of this G.o.d, and it is possible that, as a G.o.d of growth, Nuada had human incarnations called by his name.[303]

Ler, whose name means "sea," and who was a G.o.d of the sea, is father of Manannan as well as of the personages of the beautiful story called _The Children of Lir_, from which we learn practically all that is known of him. He resented not being made ruler of the Tuatha Dea, but was later reconciled when the daughter of Bodb Dearg was given to him as his wife.

On her death, he married her sister, who transformed her step-children into swans.[304] Ler is the equivalent of the Brythonic Llyr, later immortalised by Shakespeare as King Lear.

The greatness of Manannan mac Lir, "son of the sea," is proved by the fact that he appears in many of the heroic tales, and is still remembered in tradition and folk-tale. He is a sea-G.o.d who has become more prominent than the older G.o.d of the sea, and though not a supreme G.o.d, he must have had a far-spreading cult. With Bodb Dearg he was elected king of the Tuatha De Danann. He made the G.o.ds invisible and immortal, gave them magical food, and a.s.sisted Oengus in driving out Elemar from his _sid_. Later tradition spoke of four Manannans, probably local forms of the G.o.d, as is suggested by the fact that the true name of one of them is said to be Orbsen, son of Allot. Another, the son of Ler, is described as a renowned trader who dwelt in the Isle of Man, the best of pilots, weather-wise, and able to transform himself as he pleased. The _Coir Anmann_ adds that the Britons and the men of Erin deemed him G.o.d of the sea.[305] That position is plainly seen in many tales, e.g. in the magnificent pa.s.sage of _The Voyage of Bran_, where he suddenly sweeps into sight, riding in a chariot across the waves from the Land of Promise; or in the tale of _Cuchulainn's Sickness_, where his wife Fand sees him, "the horseman of the crested sea," coming across the waves. In the _Agallamh na Senorach_ he appears as a cavalier breasting the waves. "For the s.p.a.ce of nine waves he would be submerged in the sea, but would rise on the crest of the tenth without wetting chest or breast."[306] In one archaic tale he is identified with a great sea wave which swept away Tuag, while the waves are sometimes called "the son of Lir's horses"--a name still current in Ireland, or, again, "the locks of Manannan's wife."[307] His position as G.o.d of the sea may have given rise to the belief that he was ruler of the oversea Elysium, and, later, of the other-world as a magical domain coterminous with this earth. He is still remembered in the Isle of Man, which may owe its name to him, and which, like many another island, was regarded by the Goidels as the island Elysium under its name of Isle of Falga. He is also the Manawyddan of Welsh story.

Manannan appears in the Cuchulainn and Fionn cycles, usually as a ruler of the Other-world. His wife Fand was Cuchulainn's mistress, Diarmaid was his pupil in fairyland, and Cormac was his guest there. Even in Christian times surviving pagan beliefs caused legend to be busy with his name. King Fiachna was fighting the Scots and in great danger, when a stranger appeared to his wife and announced that he would save her husband's life if she would consent to abandon herself to him. She reluctantly agreed, and the child of the _amour_ was the seventh-century King Mongan, of whom the annalist says, "every one knows that his real father was Manannan."[308] Mongan was also believed to be a rebirth of Fionn. Manannan is still remembered in folk-tradition, and in the Isle of Man, where his grave is to be seen, some of his ritual survived until lately, bundles of rushes being placed for him on midsummer eve on two hills.[309] Barintus, who steers Arthur to the fortunate isles, and S.

Barri, who crossed the sea on horseback, may have been legendary forms of a local sea-G.o.d akin to Manannan, or of Manannan himself.[310] His steed was Enbarr, "water foam _or_ hair," and Manannan was "the horseman of the maned sea." "Barintus," perhaps connected with _barr find_, "white-topped," would thus be a surname of the G.o.d who rode on Enbarr, the foaming wave, or who was himself the wave, while his mythic sea-riding was transferred to the legend of S. Barri, if such a person ever existed.

Various magical possessions were ascribed to Manannan--his armour and sword, the one making the wearer invulnerable, the other terrifying all who beheld it; his horse and canoe; his swine, which came to life again when killed; his magic cloak; his cup which broke when a lie was spoken; his tablecloth, which, when waved, produced food. Many of these are found everywhere in _Marchen_, and there is nothing peculiarly Celtic in them. We need not, therefore, with the mythologists, see in his armour the vapoury clouds or in his sword lightning or the sun's rays. But their magical nature as well as the fact that so much wizardry is attributed to Manannan, points to a copious mythology cl.u.s.tering round the G.o.d, now for ever lost.

The parentage of Lug is differently stated, but that account which makes him son of Cian and of Ethne, daughter of Balor, is best attested.[311]

Folk-tradition still recalls the relation of Lug and Balor. Balor, a robber living in Tory Island, had a daughter whose son was to kill her father. He therefore shut her up in an inaccessible place, but in revenge for Balor's stealing MacIneely's cow, the latter gained access to her, with the result that Ethne bore three sons, whom Balor cast into the sea. One of them, Lug, was recovered by MacIneely and fostered by his brother Gavida. Balor now slew MacIneely, but was himself slain by Lug, who pierced his single eye with a red-hot iron.[312] In another version, Kian takes MacIneely's place and is aided by Manannan, in accordance with older legends.[313] But Lug's birth-story has been influenced in these tales by the _Marchen_ formula of the girl hidden away because it has been foretold that she will have a son who will slay her father.

Lug is a.s.sociated with Manannan, from whose land he comes to a.s.sist the Tuatha Dea against the Fomorians. His appearance was that of the sun, and by this brilliant warrior's prowess the hosts were utterly defeated.[314] This version, found in _The Children of Tuirenn_, differs from the account in the story of Mag-tured. Here Lug arrives at the gates of Tara and offers his services as a craftsman. Each offer is refused, until he proclaims himself "the man of each and every art," or _samildanach_, "possessing many arts." Nuada resigns his throne to him for thirteen days, and Lug pa.s.ses in review the various craftsmen (i.e.

the G.o.ds), and though they try to prevent such a marvellous person risking himself in fight, he escapes, heads the warriors, and sings his war-song. Balor, the evil-eyed, he slays with a sling-stone, and his death decided the day against the Fomorians. In this account Lug _samildanach_ is a patron of the divine patrons of crafts; in other words, he is superior to a whole group of G.o.ds. He was also inventor of draughts, ball-play, and horsemans.h.i.+p. But, as M. D'Arbois shows, _samildanach_ is the equivalent of "inventor of all arts," applied by Caesar to the Gallo-Roman Mercury, who is thus an equivalent of Lug.[315]

This is attested on other grounds. As Lug's name appears in Irish Louth (_Lug-magh_) and in British Lugu-vallum, near Hadrian's Wall, so in Gaul the names Lugudunum (Lyons), Lugudiacus, and Lugselva ("devoted to Lugus") show that a G.o.d Lugus was wors.h.i.+pped there. A Gaulish feast of Lugus in August--the month of Lug's festival in Ireland--was perhaps superseded by one in honour of Augustus. No dedication to Lugus has yet been found, but images of and inscriptions to Mercury abound at Lugudunum Convenarum.[316] As there were three Brigits, so there may have been several forms of Lugus, and two dedications to the _Lugoves_ have been found in Spain and Switzerland, one of them inscribed by the shoemakers of Uxama.[317] Thus the Lugoves may have been multiplied forms of Lugus or _Lugovos_, "a hero," the meaning given to "Lug" by O'Davoren.[318] Shoe-making was not one of the arts professed by Lug, but Professor Rh[^y]s recalls the fact that the Welsh Lleu, whom he equates with Lug, disguised himself as a shoemaker.[319] Lugus, besides being a mighty hero, was a great Celtic culture-G.o.d, superior to all other culture divinities.

The euhemerists a.s.signed a definite date to Lug's death, but side by side with this the memory of his divinity prevailed, and he appears as the father and helper of Cuchulainn, who was possibly a rebirth of the G.o.d.[320] His high position appears in the fact that the Gaulish a.s.sembly at Lugudunum was held in his honour, like the festival of Lugnasad in Ireland. Craftsmen brought their wares to sell at this festival of the G.o.d of crafts, while it may also have been a harvest festival.[321] Whether it was a strictly solar feast is doubtful, though Professor Rh[^y]s and others insist that Lug is a sun-G.o.d. The name of the Welsh Lleu, "light," is equated with Lug, and the same meaning a.s.signed to the latter.[322] This equation has been contested and is doubtful, Lugus probably meaning "hero."[323] Still the sun-like traits ascribed to Lug before Mag-tured suggest that he was a sun-G.o.d, and solar G.o.ds elsewhere, e.g. the Polynesian Maui, are culture-G.o.ds as well. But it should be remembered that Lug is not a.s.sociated with the true solar festivals of Beltane and Midsummer.

While our knowledge of the Tuatha De Danann is based upon a series of mythic tales and other records, that of the G.o.ds of the continental Celts, apart from a few notices in cla.s.sical authors and elsewhere, comes from inscriptions. But as far as can be judged, though the names of the two groups seldom coincide, their functions must have been much alike, and their origins certainly the same. The Tuatha De Danann were nature divinities of growth, light, agriculture--their symbols and possessions suggesting fertility, e.g. the cauldron. They were divinities of culture and crafts, and of war. There must have been many other G.o.ds in Ireland than those described here, while some of those may not have been wors.h.i.+pped all over Ireland. Generally speaking, there were many local G.o.ds in Gaul with similar functions but different names, and this may have been true of Ireland. Perhaps the different names given to Dagda, Manannan, and others were simply names of similar local G.o.ds, one of whom became prominent, and attracted to himself the names of the others. So, too, the ident.i.ty of Danu and Brigit might be explained, or the fact that there were three Brigits. We read also in the texts of the G.o.d of Connaught, or of Ulster, and these were apparently regional divinities, or of "the G.o.d of Druidism"--perhaps a G.o.d wors.h.i.+pped specially by Druids.[324] The remote origin of some of these divinities may be sought in the primitive cult of the Earth personified as a fertile being, and in that of vegetation and corn-spirits, and the vague spirits of nature in all its aspects. Some of these still continued to be wors.h.i.+pped when the greater G.o.ds had been evolved. Though animal wors.h.i.+p was not lacking in Ireland, divinities who are anthropomorphic forms of earlier animal-G.o.ds are less in evidence than on the Continent. The divinities of culture, crafts, and war, and of departments of nature, must have slowly a.s.sumed the definite personality a.s.signed them in Irish religion. But, doubtless, they already possessed that before the Goidels reached Ireland. Strictly speaking, the underground domain a.s.signed later to the Tuatha De Danann belongs only to such of them as were a.s.sociated with fertility. But in course of time most of the group, as underground dwellers, were connected with growth and increase. These could be blighted by their enemies, or they themselves could withhold them when their wors.h.i.+ppers offended them.[325]

Irish mythology points to the early pre-eminence of G.o.ddesses. As agriculture and many of the arts were first in the hands of women, G.o.ddesses of fertility and culture preceded G.o.ds, and still held their place when G.o.ds were evolved. Even war-G.o.ddesses are prominent in Ireland. Celtic G.o.ds and heroes are often called after their mothers, not their fathers, and women loom largely in the tales of Irish colonisation, while in many legends they play a most important part.

G.o.ddesses give their name to divine groups, and, even where G.o.ds are prominent, their actions are free, their personalities still clearly defined. The supremacy of the divine women of Irish tradition is once more seen in the fact that they themselves woo and win heroes; while their capacity for love, their pa.s.sion, their eternal youthfulness and beauty are suggestive of their early character as G.o.ddesses of ever-springing fertility.[326]

This supremacy of G.o.ddesses is explained by Professor Rh[^y]s as non-Celtic, as borrowed by the Celts from the aborigines.[327] But it is too deeply impressed on the fabric of Celtic tradition to be other than native, and we have no reason to suppose that the Celts had not pa.s.sed through a stage in which such a state of things was normal. Their innate conservatism caused them to preserve it more than other races who had long outgrown such a state of things.

FOOTNOTES:

[199] _HL_ 89; Stokes, _RC_ xii. 129. D'Arbois, ii. 125, explains it as "Folk of the G.o.d whose mother is called Danu."

[200] _RC_ xii. 77. The usual Irish word for "G.o.d" is _dia_; other names are _Fiadu_, _Art_, _Dess_.

[201] See Joyce, _SII_. i. 252, 262; _PN_ i. 183.

[202] _LL_ 245_b_.

[203] _LL_ 11.

[204] _LL_ 127. The mounds were the sepulchres of the euhemerised G.o.ds.

[205] _Book of Fermoy_, fifteenth century.

[206] _LL_ 11_b_.

[207] _IT_ i. 14, 774; Stokes, _TL_ i. 99, 314, 319. _Sid_ is a fairy hill, the hill itself or the dwelling within it. Hence those who dwell in it are _Aes_ or _Fir side_, "men of the mound," or _side_, fairy folk. The primitive form is probably _sedos_, from _sed_, "abode" or "seat"; cf. Greek [Greek: edos] "a temple." Thurneysen suggests a connection with a word equivalent to Lat. _sidus_, "constellation," or "dwelling of the G.o.ds."

[208] Joyce, _SH_ i. 252; O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 505.

[209] "Vision of Oengus," _RC_ iii. 344; _IT_ i. 197 f.

[210] Windisch, _Ir. Gram._ 118; O'Curry, _MC_ ii. 71; see p. 363, _infra_.

[211] Windisch, _Ir. Gram._ 118, -- 6; _IT_ iii. 407; _RC_ xvi. 139.

[212] Sh.o.r.e, _JAI_ xx. 9.

[213] Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 203 f. _Pennocrucium_ occurs in the _Itinerary_ of Antoninus.

[214] Keating, 434.

[215] Joyce, _SH_ i. 252.

[216] See p. 228. In Scandinavia the dead were called elves, and lived feasting in their barrows or in hills. These became the seat of ancestral cults. The word "elf" also means any divine spirit, later a fairy. "Elf" and _side_ may thus, like the "elf-howe" and the _sid_ or mound, have a parallel history. See Vigfusson-Powell, _Corpus Poet.

Boreale_, i. 413 f.

[217] Tuan MacCairill (_LU_ 166) calls the Tuatha Dea, "dee ocus andee,"

and gives the meaning as "poets and husbandmen." This phrase, with the same meaning, is used in "Coir Anmann" (_IT_ iii. 355), but there we find that it occurred in a pagan formula of blessing--"The blessing of G.o.ds and not-G.o.ds be on thee." But the writer goes on to say--"These were their G.o.ds, the magicians, and their non-G.o.ds, the husbandmen."

This may refer to the position of priest-kings and magicians as G.o.ds.

Rh[^y]s compares Sanskrit _deva_ and _adeva_ (_HL_ 581). Cf. the phrase in a Welsh poem (Skene, i. 313), "Teulu Oeth et Anoeth," translated by Rh[^y]s as "Household of Power and Not-Power" (_CFL_ ii. 620), but the meaning is obscure. See Loth, i. 197.

[218] _LL_ 10_b_.

[219] Cormac, 4. Stokes (_US_ 12) derives Anu from _(p)an_, "to nourish"; cf. Lat. _panis_.

[220] _Leicester County Folk-lore_, 4. The _Coir Anmann_ says that Anu was wors.h.i.+pped as a G.o.ddess of plenty (_IT_ iii. 289).

[221] Rh[^y]s, _Trans. 3rd Inter. Cong. Hist. of Rel._ ii. 213. See Grimm, _Teut. Myth._ 251 ff., and p. 275, _infra_.

[222] Rh[^y]s, _ibid._ ii. 213. He finds her name in the place-name _Bononia_ and its derivatives.

[223] Cormac, 23.

[224] Caesar, vi. 17; Holder, _s.v._; Stokes, _TIG_ 33.

[225] Girald. Cambr. _Top. Hib._ ii. 34 f. Vengeance followed upon rash intrusion. For the breath tabu see Frazer, _Early Hist. of the Kings.h.i.+p_, 224.