Irish Myths and Legends

IRISH MYTHS AND LEGENDS By Mike McPhee [Text of an address to the Sydney Unitarian Church on 27 September 2020.] The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland was preserved in an oral tradition. known as Béaloideas. With the arrival of Christianity, the first manuscripts were written in the monasteries, preserving many of these tales. Though the Christian influence is also seen in these manuscripts, this literature represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology. Although many of the manuscripts have not survived and much more material was probably never committed to writing, there is enough remaining to enable the identification of distinct, if overlapping, cycles: 1. The Mythological Cycle – prehistorical 2. The Ulster Cycle – c. 1st Century CE 3. The Fenian Cycle – c. 3rd Century CE 4. The Historical Cycle – 5th Century CE onward There are also a number of extant mythological texts that do not fit into any of the cycles, and many recorded folk tales that continued as the oral tradition ran parallel to the manuscript tradition which, while not strictly mythological, feature personages from one or more of these four cycles. The Lebor Gabála Érenn (literally ‘The Book of the Takings of Ireland’), known in English as The Book of Invasions, is a collection of poems and prose narratives in the Irish language intended to be a history of Ireland and the Irish from the creation of the world to the Middle Ages. There are a number of versions, the earliest of which was compiled by an anonymous writer in the 11th Century. What I find incredible is that the last arrivals – the Gaelic Irish – must have acquired the stories about the previous invaders from the indigenous peoples whom they conquered and subsequently assimilated. The book tells of Ireland being settled by seven groups, five of which were human: 1. Cessair and her followers 2. Formorians (monsters) 3. Partholonians 4. Nemedians 5. Fir Bolg 6. Tuatha Dé Danann (semi-divine) 7. Milesians (Gaels) The opening chapter, written by the monks and probably intended to make the Irish feel connected to the larger Christian community, explains that all mankind is descended from Adam through the sons of Noah. One son, Japheth, is the forebear of all Europeans; his son, Magog, is the forebear of the Gaels and the Scythians of Central Eurasia; and his grandson, Fénius Farsaid, is the forebear of the Gaels. Fénius, a Scythian prince, is described as one of 72 chieftains who built the Tower of Babel, and his son, Nel, married Scota, the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh. Their son, Goídel Glas, developed the Gaelic (also called Goidelic) language and his offspring left Egypt at the same time as the Exodus to settle in Scythia. After some time, they left that region and spent 440 years traveling westward until they arrived in what is now Spain. The next chapter relates how the first people arrived in Ireland, led by Noah’s granddaughter, Cessair. In an endeavour to escape the coming Flood, they sailed west in three ships, only one of which survived to land at Bantry Bay in Co. Cork. On that ship were Cessair, her father, her brother, her future husband, and forty-nine other women. The land welcomed them – new rivers and lakes burst forth and Cessair and her people cleared away a new plain to live on. However, two of the men died and then the Flood overwhelmed the rest of them – only Cessair’s husband, Fintan mac Bóchra, survived by becoming a salmon and, after the waters receded, an eagle and a hawk. In those forms, he surveyed the entire island and, returning to human form (still with the ability to change his form when needed), lived for 5500 years to advise the later arrivals. Strangely, given that none of them survived, the names of the women represent the various ethnicities of Europe, with the implication that they were the mothers of all those peoples. A hundred years later, the Formorians arrived and established a fortification on Tory Island, off the coast of Co. Donegal. They were supernatural beings, described in different stories as hostile monsters from under the sea and the earth, sea raiders (probably a reference to the Vikings), and giants with one eye, one arm and one leg. Yet, other stories describe them as humanoid and darkly beautiful, even interbreeding with the Tuatha Dé Danann. Another 200 years passed before a second group of humans arrived, led by Partholón, who was descended from Noah’s grandson, Magog. They sailed to Ireland from the Mediterranean to find that the island had only one open plain, three lakes and nine rivers. Partholón’s people battled the Fomorians for dominion of Ireland and, when they won, seven new lakes burst from the ground. Fintan mac Bhóchra made himself known to them and helped them establish an agrarian society. They cleared three plains and, as given by the names of some of the men, started cattle husbandry, ploughing, cooking and brewing, also dividing the island in four parts. They prospered for a time and their numbers grew to 9000 before they all died from a plague. Again, there was one survivor, Tuan mac Chairill, who also lived for centuries in various forms until the coming of Christianity. A mere 30 years later, a third group of people arrived led by Nemed, who was also descended from Magog. Somehow, they set out from the Caspian Sea in 44 ships but, again, only one managed to reach Ireland. These Nemedians cleared twelve plains and build two royal forts, and four lakes burst from the ground. They won four battles against the Fomorians and Nemed made them build a beautiful fortress for him, after which he had all the craftsmen killed so they could never build its equal for anyone else. After Nemed and many others died from a plague, the Nemedians were oppressed by the Fomorians, led by Conand mac Fhebair and Morc mac Dheled. Every year, they had to give the Formorians two-thirds of all their production, including their children. After four generations, the Nemedians rebelled and attacked Conand’s tower with 60,000 warriors, defeating him. Morc then attacked and the sea (which the Formorians controlled) rose up and overwhelmed the Nemedians. One ship with 30 men escaped, some of whom went to the magical lands of the north, others to Britain (which was uninhabited at that time) and still others to Greece. Those who went to Greece were enslaved and made to carry bags of soil and clay, for which reason they were called the Fir Bolg, meaning ‘men of the sacks’. They kept their spirits up for 230 years by telling stories of their homeland, until they managed to escape and return to Ireland. Led by their five chieftains, they divided Ireland into five provinces, and the provincial kings elected one of their number to be the High King of the island. Fintan Mac Bhóchra watched all of this happening and helped them fight off the Fomorians. A succession of nine High Kings ruled over Ireland for the next 37 years. The Nemedians who went to the north of the world became the supernaturally gifted Tuatha Dé Danann (people of the goddess Danu), who represent the main pagan gods of Ireland. They sailed to Ireland in 300 ships concealed by a dark mist and landed on Sliabh an Iarainn (Iron Mountain) in Co. Leitrim. The Fir Bolg met them and learned that the two peoples were related, though the former were short, dark and hairy, with crude weapons, and the latter were tall, golden and beautiful, with advanced and brightly shining armaments. The Tuatha proposed an equal division of the island but the Fir Bolg rejected this, so they fought for four days on the Plains of Magh Tuireadh (Moytura) and the newcomers won. The Fir Bolg were given the western region of Connacht but, in this First Battle of Moytura, the king of the Tuatha, Nuada, lost his right arm and therefore had to pass the kingship to Breas, who had a Formorian father and a Tuatha mother. It was hoped that Breas would unite the two races but, instead, he favoured the Formorians and oppressed the Tuatha. He was deposed and Nuada, with his arm replaced by one of silver, regained the kingship. Breas applealed to the Formorians for support and was joined by Balor of the Evil Eye, who raised a huge army. Dreadful battles followed, culminating in the Second Battle of Moytura, in which Balor killed Nuada but was killed in turn by his grandson (another hybrid), Lugh Lámhfada (Lugh of the Long Arm). With the Formorians vanquished, Lugh became king and the Tuatha enjoyed 150 years of unbroken rule in their lands. The story now returns to the Gaels in the north of Iberia, where an early leader, Breogán, founded a city called Brigantia and built a high tower. His son, Íth, spied Ireland from the top of that tower and sailed to the island with a group of men, landing at Inis Eoghain in Co. Donegal. The High King of the Tuatha had recently died and his three sons were quarrelling over which of them should succeed him, so they asked Íth for his advice. He just said that they should follow their own laws and he praised the land all about him – so well that the Tuatha grew nervous, thinking he was looking with the eye of a conqueror, and they killed him. (The tower behind Breogán’s statue is actually the Roman-built Tower of Hercules, which was a lighthouse at the time and was restored and extended upwards in 1790.) The rest of Íth’s party returned to Iberia with his body, after which some of the Gaels set sail with a great force to avenge his death and take Ireland.

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