The Religion of the Ancient Celts. J. A. MacCulloch
ii. 52; RC xii. 476.
Footnote 180: (return)
RC xii. 73.
Footnote 181: (return)
RC xii. 105.
Footnote 182: (return)
RC xxii. 195.
Footnote 183: (return)
Larmime, "Kian, son of Kontje."
Footnote 184: (return)
See p. 78; LL 245b.
Footnote 185: (return)
Mannhardt, Mythol. Forsch. 310 f.
Footnote 186: (return)
"Fir Domnann," "men of Domna," a goddess (Rh[^y]s, HL 597), or a god (D'Arbois, ii. 130). "Domna" is connected with Irish-words meaning "deep" (Windisch, IT i. 498; Stokes, US 153). Domna, or Domnu, may therefore have been a goddess of the deep, not the sea so much as the underworld, and so perhaps an Earth-mother from whom the Fir Domnann traced their descent.
Footnote 187: (return)
Cormac, s.v. "Neith"; D'Arbois, v. 400; RC xii. 61.
Footnote 188: (return)
LU 50. Tethra is glossed badb (IT i. 820).
Footnote 189: (return)
IT i. 521; Rh[^y]s, HL 274 f.
Footnote 190: (return)
RC xii. 95.
Footnote 191: (return)
RC xii. 101.
Footnote 192: (return)
See p. 374.
Footnote 193: (return)
D'Arbois, ii. 198, 375.
Footnote 194: (return)
HL 90–91.
Footnote 195: (return)
HL 274, 319, 643. For Beli, see p. 112, infra.
Footnote 196: (return)
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 Dé Dananns. Mag-tured may have been the scene of a battle between their respective worshippers.
Footnote 197: (return)
O'Grady, ii. 203.
Footnote 198: (return)
It should be observed that, as in the Vedas, the Odyssey, the Japanese Ko-ji-ki, as well as in barbaric and savage mythologies, Märchen formulæ abound in the Irish mythological cycle.
CHAPTER V.
THE TUATHA DÉ DANANN
The meaning formerly given to Tuatha Dé Danann was "the men of science who were gods," danann being here connected with dán, "knowledge." But the true meaning is "the tribes or folk of the goddess Danu,"199 which agrees with the cognates Tuatha or Fir Dea, "tribes or men of the goddess." 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 gods."200 The equivalents in Welsh story of Danu and her folk are Dôn 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 Cúchulainn 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 associated with the mounds (síd)—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 gods, the mounds were divided among them, the method of division varying in different versions. In an early version the Tuatha Dé Danann are immortal and the Dagda divides the síd.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 síd, yet even here Manannan is said to have conferred immortality upon the Tuatha Dé Danann.205 The old pagan myths had shown that gods 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 Dé 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 gods in exile, a view which appears in the romantic tales and sagas existing side by side with the notices of the annalists. They