It occurred at break of day, and only half the Irish forces were engaged, when a rout took place in the confusion and darkness. O'Donnell took no part in the action; and such was his chagrin, and indignation at Don Juan's conduct and inactivity during the combat, that he took advantage of the presence of a Spanish brig then in the harbor, to embark for Spain and impeach Don Juan before the King. He left his brother in command and proceeded on his way, never alas!
Both armies reached the north in safety, and such was the terror inspired by the name of O'Neil, that it was left to him to dictate the terms on which he would accept pardon and a coronet from the English Queen. D'Aguila at once surrendered not only Kinsale but the other fortifications which he had received from the Irish chiefs. The castle of Dunbuy had, however, a small garrison of Irishmen who refused to surrender.
The desperate defence made by this little band, and the savage ferocity that marked the sack of the place, are unexampled in history. And here ended the liberty of Ireland, her nationhood and her name. But ere the closing scene, indeed before his coronet was given to O'Neil, Elizabeth was called to her last account, and James of Scotland had mounted her throne. Early in James' reign , Geoffrey Keating returned to Ireland. War and fagots had then given place to facile judges and suborned juries, under the guidance of that renowned casuist, Sir John Davies.
By this time Keating was forty years of age, twenty-three of which were spent in a foreign college, most likely Salamanca. Other places are mentioned, but the great probability is, that he studied, and, as it is asserted, taught, at Salamanca; for the intercommunication. Spain was, in fact, the principal refuge for the exiled Irish, and his opportunities for preserving his practical knowledge of his native tongue, were far greater there than elsewhere out of Ireland. It is probable, too, that he there, from time to time, received old manuscripts from bards and shannachies, who shared the flight of the O'Donnell or followed him into exile.
This would account in some degree for the general accuracy of his history, for we are told, that in his researches through Connaught and Ulster, the bards who had stolen to the hills to live with wild beasts, repulsed him, as owning a strange name and belonging to the race of the hungry undertakers who then preyed on the green fields of their inheritance. Although James had in revived Elizabeth's conformity act, it does not appear that the Catholics of Munster, at least in that part under the sway of the Ormonds, suffered any actual persecution.
Indeed, so far back as , Sir George Carew held an assize at Limerick, Cashel and C lonmell, where he did vengeance on the restive of these parts whom he could lay hands on. But he found that a great number had fled to the Ormonds, two baronies in North Tipperary; and meeting the Earl of Ormond at Clonmell, "he did move him " to go with him into these parts to assize them at his leisure there. But "' the Earl did entreate him to satisfie himselfe concerning that busines, for he would undertake it. On the first Sunday of his ministry, as he was proceeding to vest himself, the vicar requested him to delay mass.
After some time he asked the cause, and was informed it was to accommodate a wealthy family who had not yet arrived. He refused to sanction this practice, and proceeded with the sacrifice. He was glad to learn thereafter, that the family were of his own kindred, who took good care to be punctual in future. How long he continued fulfilling the duties of the ministry in Tubrid, we are not informed. His fame as a preacher extended far, and numerous and even fashionable audiences gathered to hear him. The building of the church at Tubrid engaged his care, and under the circumstances of the time, this labor must have extended over years.
He also wrote during his mission a theological treatise, called "Eochair Sgiath anAifrinn," a Key to the Shield of the Mass, a work it is said of rare merit. These works are not translated, and we have no doubt they would be valuable accessions to the description of literature to which they belong. Doctor Keating has left a great many lyrical compositions of considerable merit. They are Mo bheannacht leat a scribhinn distinguished above the productions of his time Go h-inis aoibhinn Ealga; by simplicity and purity of style.
They all Is truagh! They are scattered through the miscellaneous Slan da h-uaisle's d'a h-oireacht, manuscripts which yet abound in Ireland. One Slan go ro bheacht d'a cleirchibh, is selected for publication here; simple, beauti- Slan da bantrachtaibh caoine ful and brimfull of tenderness, as an example of Slan d'a saoithibh le h-eigsibh.
It is an address to a letter he had Mo shlan d'a maahaibh mine, Just written to some friend in Ireland, from his Slan fa mhile d'a a cltocaibh, retreat at Salamanca. Here is the poem. It is Mo chion d'on te ta inte, headed- Slan da linntlbh a s d'a a lochalbh. The duties of the priest would not allow the necessary leisure to the historian. The circumstances that compelled his flight are variously related. One version is, that in a sermon fashionably attended, he so severely reproved a certain vice, that a Mrs.
Moklar, a dashinig beauty, resented it as a personal exposure of her criminal levity. Burning with rage, she flew to the President, who was one of her admirers, and invoked at his hands the vengeance of. That which is certain is, he fled. It is equally certain, he was protected from the blood-hounds of the law. Fidelity among the Irish people is a virtue often sorely tested and never found wanting.
This and this alone accounts for the magnitude of the task he accomplished under circumstances of so much peril. The forests were large, and in many instances inaccessible, and filled with bold outlaws whom nothing Slan d'a coiltibh fa thorthaibh, My love to those within her, Slan fos d'a qorraidhaibh iaseach, Her lakes and linns and fountains. Sian d'a mointibh a's d'a bantaibh, Sian fos d'a rathaibll a's d'a riasgaibh. IIer wbods with berries drooping, Her sparkling pools with fishes, Slan o'm chroidhe d'a cuantaibh, Ifer moors and moadows greenest, Slan fos d'a tuarthaibh troma; To these my teeming wishes.
My heart's best memories to her Broad bays and surest harbors, Gidh gnath a foirne fraochdha Her yellow harvest bending Ann inis naopnhtha neamhochd tIer songs in blending arbors. Athwart the billows rearing My blessing bear to Ireland. My blessing with thee, letter, To beauty-fretted Erinn; The "farewell" is published in lHardiman's Would I could see her highlands Minstrelsy, vol. Though crimson dyes oft wearing.
Tha translation here given is literal, or at Fond blessings to her nobles, least as nearly so as is compatible with the measAnd priesthood holy, fonder, ure, rythm, and structure of the original, which HIcr maidens and her sages are all preserved. There are in both original Who o'er her pages ponder. The trans- which suggested the translation. Its scenery has been immortalized by County of Limerick. The bards met, and sang Gerald Griffin, the truest, most sensitive and and feasted under summer foliage, on a wood- tenderest of our later bards, whose pictures of land slope overlooking the silver Maig; and the its loveliness are as glowing as his imagination poet does ample justice to the enchanting loveli- and as truthful as his heart.
He also describes the festivity. And notwithstanding the devices of "artful Cecil," the country then lacked that noblest institution of the nineteenth century, a rural police. In fact, therefore, he might, as is alleged, have written or completed the history in Aherlow woods, now one of the loveliest mountain valleys in Ireland. The glen of Aherlow, as the place is called, extends along the northern base of the Galtees, a distance of twelve miles from the village of Bansha to Galbally. It is sheltered at the north by the low range of the Clan William mountains.
It was theretofore the asylum of " Rebels," who mayhap had thrice denied the spiritual supremacy of Elizabeth, which, on one occasion, they sorely rued, for they received a friendly visit from Carew and his retinue of hangmen, the object and achievement of which he thus describes: Nor were its solitude and quiet unsuited to the labor of the historian.
There is no good reason then to question the story that hallows the scene. The tradition has long survived the wood, and all traces of the hiding place. The rich sheen of the meadow and the golden hue of the harvest glalden the Glen of Aherlow now. But those who dwell there, love to recall the gloomy memories of that gloomy time, and by many a fireside is whispered lowly in the olden tongue the bloody raid of Carew's gallows tree, and then, more loudly and exultingly, the inviolability of Keating's retreat.
This fact has become the "genius loci " or spirit of the spot, and even though we could dissipate the spell with which it has invested that lovely vale, where so oft we roamed exulting in the strife and freedom we had fondly hoped for, we would not touch with disturbing, hand a tradition so characteristic of those mournful times. But there is no reason to doubt its truth, and we hold that Doctor Keating either wrote the whole or a great part of the "' Foras feasa ar Erinn," in the woods of Aherlow. Being unable to fix the date of Keating's separation from his duties or that of the commencement of his history, or whether he ever again returned to the ministry, we shall glance briefly at the history of his family from his time downward.
Early in the reign of Charles I. His brother Richard Keating's daughter was married to Wall, of Coolnamuck, on the right bank of the Suir, two miles from Carrick. The sole male representative of these Keatings died at Annapolis, in Maryland, towards the close of the last century. Cotemporaneous with them was Michael Keating, of Shanbally, who was married to Lord Dpnboyne's sister. John Keating, his son, was married to Miss Kearney, of Kappagh. He was cotemporaneous with the Doctor and his nearest relative. This John was called the " baron " and " knight of the fleece.
Michael married the sister of Lady Ferrand, and left issue one son, who was Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin; but whether he left any issue we cannot say. The name of Mandeville is on the muster roll of William of Norniandy and that of the barons of Rumnymede, and in the family Ballydine was an inheritance for years. Whether Maurice Keating has left any male issue, we cannot say. John left no issue, Roger only one daughter, the late Mrs. Nixon, of the county of Meath. Henry married a Miss Singer, sister of the fellow of that name of. He joined the army and rose rapidly.
He commanded the attack on the Isle of Bourbon; and on the news reaching England, was made major-general. He was afterwards appointed governor of the Isle of France, created baronet, and invested with the order of the Bath. George left one son, Henry George, who lately lived near Mallow, and if alive is perhaps the only male representative of the family in Ireland.
William, the youngest of these brothers, fell in a duel. Robert Keating of Garranlea, claims a relationship with this family, but what it is, or whether he has any, does not appear. Thus there seems but doubtful conjecture, that there is, at least in his proper rank and position, one representative of the male line of the Keatings in Ireland. The Doctor's History, after all, is their noblest monument.
It is, in truth, "pe;eIlnius sere. The Everards held princely sway in their feudal hold at Fethard, whose walls, yet standing, attest its strength and their grandeur. The last of this race was the Archbishop of Cashel, who died in The Mandevilles are seen no more at Ballydine, and that ancient patrimony has passed away from the name for ever. The last of the Dunboynes was Bishop Butler, who abandoned creed and crozier to take a wife and title. He is buried in the old Augustinian Abbey, in Fethard.
His monument is extremely simple, but extremely beautiful. It is a mournful record of his times, for it testifies that he repented of his " reformation," and renounced the new creed and title on the bed of death. Of Doctor Keating's later life or death, no record remains, except the inscription on the old ruins at Tubrid. The date, as will be seen, in the copy given below, is This inscription indicates that Doctor Keating was never parish priest, for the designation " vicar" is added to the Rev.
He obtained sake, the disinheritor of Ballydine, also married large grants of land, extending nearly from Car- to one of the Hacketts, left issue Francis of New rick to Clonmell, on the left bank of the Suir, Castle, and James, who adopted his mother a from Henry It. The castle of Ballydine, built name and the arms of her family.
He entered by him, was the residence of the head of the the East India service and rose to high rank. A house for over six hundred years. Towards the large family now inherit his name and fortunes close of the last century, Thomas Mandeville. Tohirn also he disposed issue were John, the father of James, jun. Mandeville of Ballyqc rkeen. If the latter, then it may be possible that Doctor Keating lived, as Mr.
O'Donovan is inclined to believe, until Otherwise it is undoubted that he was dead in , for beyond all question he was dead when the inscription was written, although by some incomprehensible mode of reasoning, the author of the life prefixed to Halliday's translation concludes, that the request to pray for his soul and those of the others, whose bodies lay buried in the church, was conclusive proof that he was then living. We are informed that the church was built by " leave of Parliament," and this "leave" must have been obtained in the early part of Charles I.
Once again the flag of the red hand dawned on the gladdened fields of Tirowen and the flood of the Blackwater. He met Munroe at Benburb, and with a force inferior in numbers to that general's veterans, utterly routed him. Munroe's retreat was a flight, and he left nearly four thousand of his " roundheads " dead on the field. O'Neil was preparing to pursue him, when, fatal order! In or 8, he was marching at the head of the confederate army in pursuit of Cromwell, then on his way to Clonmell, when at Tandaragee the bowl of the assassin laid in death this last hope of Erin.
Had Doctor Keating lived in these times, he would leave some record of the ruin that swept over Munster. In his preface, he'says that he was then an old man.
Ancient Irish Literature
In the manuscript copy from which the following translation has been made, and for which the translator is indebted to the kindness of Mr. Cork, Ireland, a postscript is appended, dated This date clearly establishes as that of his birth, which would leave him then nearly sixty years of age. There is reason to believe, too, that Mr. Sheehan's manuscript is very old, and is a copy of the original, and was very carefully compared with it. It has been traced to the possession of the Rev'd Mr. O'Keefe, nearly contemporary with the historian. In closing this brief and uncertain memoir, let us be permitted to hope, that those who may be in possession of authentic records relative to Doctor Keating, will communicate the same to some person who can use it, so as that they may fix such facts and dates in reference to the great historian as can be knowh.
We subjoin the Tubrid inscription, most fervently joining in the prayer it invokes. Orate pro animabus Rev. Patris Eugenii Duhuy, vicarii de Tubrid, et D. Doctoris Keating, hujusce sacelli fundatorum necnon et pro omnibus allis tain sacerdotibus quam laicis, quorum corpora in eodem jacent. Pray for the souls of the Reverend Father Euoene Duhy, vicar of Tubrid, and the learned Doctor Keating, the founders of this church; and, also f tl those of all others, whether lay or clerical, whose bodies are therein interred.
And, because I have undertaken to write and publish a History of Ireland, I deem myself obliged to complain previously of some of the wrongs and acts of injustice practiced towards its inhabitants, as well tbwards the Old Gauls 2 Anglo-Irish , who have been in possession of the country for more than four centuries since the English invasion, as towards the Gaels,3 who have owned it for nearly three thouDr.
KEATING styles his prelimi- manners and habits of the Irish, with nary discourse "Dion-bhrollach," whom they quickly amalgamated, and Deen-vrollagli, a compound term, they became, as the English writers of meaning, literally, "a guard for the the day said of them, " ipsis flibernis breast. A marked distinction Our author was fond of such compound was therefore made between them and titles. Thus he styles his history the ". His cleverest and most care- to them by the natives. They are alfully-written work, which he composed ways styled either " Brethnmaigh" Brehin deCfnce of his national religion, he nigh , i.
For there is no historian that has written upon Ireland, since the event just mentioned, who does not strive to vilify and calumniate both the Anglo-Irish colonists and the Gaelic corrupt innovation, always replace the has thereby misled some really learned "ae" of the ancients by "ao. Moore used in translating the word, wherever quotes him as an authority upon what it is used in a national or generic sense. The editor rejects the and' Gaedhal" or" Gael," were but diaform " Gadelian," because it disguises lectic variations of the same original the diphthong " ae," which he considers appellation.
As a basis for his assumpan essentially radical element of the tion, Dr.
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O'Brien makes the following word, while it does not at all add to the assertion, which, after his own etymofacility of its pronunciation in English. Having remarked with " Gacetulus," or " Gaetuli," a name upon that property of the Gaelic tongue, by which a nation of northern Africa by which no two or more vowels coming was designated by the Romans.
The manner in tiplying their syllables, according to which it has been introduced into English the exigency of their rhymes, devised has misled many learned inquirers into the method of throwing in between comparative etymology, leading them the two vowels an adventitious consoto fancy that it had some relationship nant generally a' d' or' g' aspirated with the word, " Gallus," or "' Gaul," by'h' , in order to stretch and diother than that of most total opposition.
As this consonant was " quite upon the subject, Dr. O'Brien, in re- foreign to the natural frame of the marlingr on the letter " a," in his Irish word, so it entirely corrupted and disDictionary, has devoted a large space to guised its radical form and structure. His object in this forced, and, I letters he would style adventitious do am sorry to think, wilfully deceitful at- not belong either to the radical framze tempt, was, apparently, to support some of the word, or to its regular gramof the wild etymological fantasies of matical infiection. The proof that the General Vallancey, and antiquarians of letters are not adventitious may easily his school.
Though the Doctor's reasons be had, by comparing the words in are beneath criticism, and perfectly which they occur with their cognate ridiculous to any one who knows even terms in other Indo-European dialects; a little of the Gaelic language, in which in some one of which the letters, mor. The truth seems to white, or as any two terms can possi- to be, that these aspirations or silencbly be; still, I am induced to notice ings of medial and final letters, were his imposition here, by the fact that he the peculiar mode of corruption by.
Whether spoken language underwent from poputhat essential difference and one or two lar corruption. This is no place to other minor ones, was caused by either cite many examples of the class of Semitic, Uralian, or Finnish admix. Pictet, the investigation of the comparative upon the Analogies of the Sanscrit philologist.
It would favor our Phe- with the Celtic tongues. O'Brien's assumpbelong altogether to the Gaelic, but tion, the cogener of the word we spell they pervade the whole family of the "Gaedal," but pronounce " Gael," is still tongues called Celtic. In the Cimbric or Kimtioln of such silent letters, in the written ric, i.
He will rather consid- pronounced as the " th" in the English er it a proof of the resistance given by the word "whither. For, if these name from books. They must have ollamhs and bards did innovate, how heard our forefathers, when first is it that, isolated, as they undoubtedly brought into contact with them, call were, from the learned of the wbrld, themselves Gaedail or Guydhill, soundthey always chanced to hit upon the ing the radical " d" fully.
Otherwise, proper radical letter that should be they would not have known that such inserted in order to make the written a letter existed in writing. Their own word correspond in outward appear- language is subject to. Are we to suppose ours is, but they write their words as that these ollamhs and bards, whose pronoun ced,heedless of radicals.
Hence, edlucation was purely local and profes- without abiding too closely to the date sional, were skilled in the very recent which the bards give as the time, when science of comparative philology? Are II Mlledh's sons first heard dread Ocean -we to believe all that the venerable Iis music beat on Eri's shores," Keating has transcribed for us of we must still put back the epoch, when the royal schoolmaster, Fenius Farsa, Gael and Cimber met in western Euand of that universal savant, Gaedal, rope, to an extremely remote period, son of Ethor?
And yet we must that is, to some period when the " d" either do that, and allow a knowledge was fully sounded in Gaedal. That it of comparative philology to our bards was not so sounded, when our Scottish and shanachies, of which the most kinsmen of Alba left us, some fourteen learned amongst modern philologists hundred years ago, we have living testimnight feel proud, or we must allow that mony. The Highlander aspirates or these silent and aspirated letters, which silences the same letters, in the same pervade the whole frame-work of the words, as the Munster-man.
It has Gaelic tongue, are not adventitious. It must have taken anwerefirst committed to writing, and that other, at least, equal' period to make the. English , who have treated of this country. So that, when they speak of the Irish, one would imagine that these men were actuated wide difference that exists between the, ral signification, and it is now forced as nevertheless, closely-allied languages of a national name upon the Cimbri, wheWales and Ireland.
This one example ther they will have it themselves or not. If the natives of the country, which this radical word " goedal," which called Gallia by the Latins, were the was,perhaps, more anciently "Gedalus," same as the Gael, their relationship "Gaetulus," rat-rvaog and ratOvtoq, must be proved by something better has been subjected, viz: In the nouncel eeng, poetically eevinn; in old Angrlo-Saxon, its kindred term Latin, "amenus.
The German form of the word sword, vulgarly pronounced cloive, poet"Welschl" means foreign also-Italy is ically cl ghv; in Latin, "gladim;" their "Welschland" or "Foreigners' and in English, "glaive. Medhon," i e the until further proof be adduced in sup- mddle, vulgarly pronounced me. So of the poetically ooval; Latin, "humilis. XX1 by the instinct of the beetle;' for it is the nature of this animal, when it raises its head in the summer, to flutter about without stooping to the fair flowers of the meadow, or to the blossoms of the garden, though they were all roses and lilies; it bustles hurriedly round, until it meets writh some loathsome ordure, and it buries itself therein; so with the above-named writers, they never allude to the virtues and the good customs of the old Anglo-Irish and Gaelic nobility, who dwelt in Ireland in their time; they write not of their piety or of their valor, of what monasteries they founded-what lands and endowments theyv gave to the Church -what immunities they granted to the ollamhs,' or learned docIn fine, this list might be extended side, and the Sanscrit, that had perto a much greater length, did space al- haps ceased to be a vulgar tongue below.
Did I quote monosyllabic words, fore Homer composed his Iliad, and where the final letters are silent or consequently the purest and most permortified, it might be swelled to from feet specimen of the ancient Japetiau six hundred to a thousand radical tongue, on the other; with the Greek, words. It is this peculiar tendency of La-tin, Gothic, Slavic, Cimbro-Celtic or the Celtic vocal organs to mortify or Welsh, and the various dialects of our silence certain letters, that caused the own Ibero-Celtic, as connecting links begreat number of silent letters found in tweeh the two extremes, such evidence the Celto-Latin of France, that is, the cap be brought in support of the tramodern French-a much less portion dition of our own bards on the subject, of which is derived directly from the as must convince any really learned and Romans than is generally supposed.
By the silent, aspirated this subject than is usual in a note, but or mortified letters, and certain other he deems its importance to be an am- accidents, what I may call the stratipile excuse; for, not only does a good fied history of the Irish tongue, written deal relating to the filiation of the upon its very c ire by Nature's own hand, Irish and Scottish Gaels depend upon and its successive stages of formation, the retention or rejection of the rad- can be traced up to its primitive parent ical "d" in this particular case, but or parents in the East, with scarcely the, perhaps, much more important, less certainty than the history of the question of the possession of a.
Bards from the very earliest times, can, 4 The Beetle. This idea is also found in his opinion, be incontrovertibly in Lope de Vega, the Spanish dramatist proved by the existence of those very si- and poet. An ancient Latin naturalist lent letters, of which he has given exam- has said of this insect, "periit odore ples, when supported by strict propriety rosi," i. The maintainers literary and scientific professions. In of the truth of the ancient tradition, pagan times, they were presided over by that tells us of the uninterrupted use the Arch-Druid.
They comprised the of letters amon our ancestors, should Druids Brethemhs Brehtave , i. Brerest that much disputed question upon holns or Judges, the Bards, Historians, the internal structure of' our ancient Physicians, and Musicians. Each order written lang-uaae alone. With the mod- of these was presided over by an Ardt ern Irish and Alban Scotch on the one Ollamh, or chief doctor. Witness the meetings of the learned which they convened a custom unheard of amongst the other nations of Europe ; so that such was the force of generosity and liberality amongst the old Anglo-Irish and Gaels of Ireland, that they were not satisfied with distributing their bounties to those that claimed them but they also gave public invitations to all persons to come and partake of their favors, in order to find a wider scope for their desire of bestowing treasures and presents.
And yet nothing of all this can be found in the English writers of the time; but they dwell upon the customs of the vulgar, and upon the stories of ignorant old women, neglecting the illustrious actions of the nobility and all that relates to the ancient Gaels that inhabited this island before the invasion of the Anglo-Normans. Let us see did any nation in Europe oppose the Romans with more valor than they Add in their defence of Alba or Scotland. They forced the Britons to build a wall between Britain and Scotland, in order to protect themselves from the incursions of the Gaels; and, although there was constantly an army of Romans, amounting to 52, foot and horse, kept to defend that wall, together with 30, foot, and 1, horse for guarding the coasts and harbors of the country against the Scots a'nd Picts, nevertheless, according to the Chronicle of Samuel Daniel, the Gaels used to pass over the wall and ravage the country in spite of that large army.
Cormac MacCulinan6 also tells us, in his Psalter, that, in consequence of the ravages committed in Britain by the Gaels, and the "Cruithnigh," called also Picts, the Britons murdered their Roman governors three times, as a peace-offering to those plunderers. We can also understand from Geoffry of Monmouth. We also read, in the Chronicle of Samuel Daniel, that the Romans had built fourteen fortresses in Britain, in order to resist the Scots and Picts, who continued to disturb that country, in spite of the Roman power, from the time of Julius Coesar to that of Valentinian the Third, 6 Cormac, sonof Culinan, Archbishop ster A.
He was the compiler of Cashel, was prociaimed king of Mun- of the famous Psalter of Cashel. Xxiii namely, for a space of years; for it was in the year of our Lord , that the Rolmans deserted their British province. A contest arose before that time between Theodosius and Maximus, which obliged the latter to bring a great body of Britons with him to Armorica,7 which is now called Little Britain Bretagne , in France; and, he having expelled the former inhabitants, gave that country to his British soldiers, whose posterity retain it to the present day.
MIy answer to this charge is, that Strabo has lied, in thus asserting the Irish to be cannibals. For, nowhere in our ancient records do we read of any person, that eat human flesh, except Ethni Uathach,9 daughter of Crimthann. The reader must understand, when our Shanachies would not conceal this shameful fact, so disgraceful to a daughter of a king of Leinstcr, and wife of a king of Munster, that they would not fail to expose it in people of inferior rank, if such a practice ever prevailed in this country; therefore Strabo is false, in asserting it to be a custom in Ireland to eat human flesh, when 7 Armorica is now called Bretagne.
But from It lies on the northwestern coast of this must be deducted the Basque or France. The rural inhabitants still Guipuscoan, which is not now held to be almost universally, speak a dialect of Celtic. Bretagne has given many disthe Celtic tongurle, closely akin to the tinguished men to France, among whom Welsh or Cimbric. They are a brave, was the celebrated poet, Chateaubriand. They in the days of Augustus and Tiberius. The invasion, which our author here alludes, is much here referred to, was not one of extermi- celebrated.
Keating shows how rigidly he but amalgamate with their own kins- interpreted the canon, he quotes a little folk. The Bretons are supposed to below, defining the historian's duties. It is, however, most likely, an idle In there were said to be some three slander thrown at the Munster tribes by millions speaking the Breton language their enemies, and taken hold of by In all France and Spain, it was then some strolling story-teller.
Keating supposed that there were some ten mill- did not sufficiently remember the fact,. AMy answer to St. Jerome,10 who makes the sanhm assertion, in writing against Jovinian, is, that he must have had his information from some vender of lies, and that it should not be credited to the prejudice of the Irish. Solinus," in his twenty-first chapter, tells us that there are no bees in Ireland; and goes on to state, that the male children, for the first month after birth, receive their food from the point of a sword.
He also says that the Irish, when they have killed an enemy, are wont to bathe thlemselves in his blood; but it is evident'frcm our own history that every word of this is false. Attic vase painting ca. Crippled Hephaistos is led back to his mother Hera on Olympos by the god Dionysos, riding on an ass. The myths of the Dioskoroi and Bellerophon also appear related.
The Volundr Saga and the various known carvings of the Wayland legend on Anglo-Saxon and Viking age artifacts also focus upon his escape from the world of men either with a magical flying machine, upon a giant bird, or with a valkyrie. The complex interplay of their principles can nearly drive you mad!
Little is known about him, although it is likely he merged with Vulcan at some point, so what can be said of Vulcan might apply originally to Velchans. According to later Roman authors commenting upon the substratum of Etrurian religious culture important at the heart of Republican era Roman religion, he was both a god of fire Vitruvius 1stC, BC and lightning Servius, 4thC CE. The Etruscan haruspices or diviners were keen observers of natural phenomena, and lightning was one of the most important and potent of these. Zeus sends a gadfly to bite Pegasus who unseats its rider who tumbles down into a thorn bush and lives out the rest of his earthly existence blind and crippled until Zeus decides to deify him.
Veroli Casket — This appears to show Bellerephon as one of the Dioskoroi. The Dioskoroi were said to be children of the swan-maiden Leda, just as Weland was the wife of a swan-maiden a valkyrie. They all ultimately seem connected to the worship of a Great Mother Goddess. The Idaean Dactyls — like the Kabeiroi — were considered masters of smithcraft.
Such heroes are always so the tales tell us in need of a steed, weapons and armour in order to complete their quests, and the character of the smith is the enabler in all of these, and with time becomes conflated with the hero. The smith shoes the horses and forges the weapons. Hephaistos represented the manifest earthly power behind that divine will — the passive spirit operating through active physical activity.
Ericthonios was also associated strongly with horses and the creative arts — he is said to have taught the yoking of horses, the smelting of silver, and to have invented the quadriga chariot, as well as teaching the art of ploughing. Other horse-related constellations in this vicinity of the sky include Equuleus and Saggitarius.
Capricornus lies between both of these. Taurus is also near. For the most explicit descriptions of Baltic and Slavic gods, the reader might wish to study the works of Mireja Gimbutas and Algirdas Greimas. The hammer is, of course, one of the symbolic indicators of smithcraft , the other being the tongs. In the middle ages until its acquisition by the Ottomans in , Constantinople was a magnet of power and wealth that attracted north Europeans to its shores to trade and seek their fortune. Many of these peoples remained nominally pagan and only partly christian or jewish until a very late period: As a result, there are a number of contemporary written sources and later folklore records of the actual pagan religions of Lesser Russia, Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia which were still being practised until relatively recently.
Perkunas and his variants represented the sky elemental air and fire , whereas Velnias and his variants represented the earth elemental earth and water. Their various legends point towards an interplay between the two states: Reconstruction of the underlying theology of these gods, it must be noted, depends upon collecting together details recorded over a period of time spanning almost years from sources in various different regions. He also like Thor has been portrayed as either being accompanied by a goat, riding upon a goat, or riding in a chariot pulled by a goat or goats.
They obviously have a common cultural root. The ancient Minoan Labrys axe. Did it originally come from the Black Sea trade routes with the north? It should become obvious that Wayland is an intermediary partaker of the qualities of the sky god and the terrestrial-god. In his myth he is confined on earth for a period, but longs for the sky, into which he leaps at the opportunity to escape. Whereas the hammer is archetypally the tool of a blacksmith or stonemason, the axe is the tool of the woodsman and the builder of wooden houses — particularly in the arboreal climes of the Baltic and Russian provinces where wooden houses have predominated, being warmer in harsh winters.
For these reasons, Perkunas is associated with an axe — he creates by dividing. Perkunas represented Air and Fire — they are complimentary to one another. Upon extracting his revenge, he escapes into the sky on the back of a magical bird the returning swan? The allegory is one of winter and the return of vegetation from rot and decay.
The 13thC Volyn chronicle also mentions Teliavelis as a god secretly worshipped by a Lithuanian king supposed to have converted to christianity. On closer analysis, Teliavelis appears to be the same god as Velnias, lord of the souls of the dead veles: Within the corpus of Norse mythology, the other great tragic sacrificial character is that of Baldr , who was accidentally killed by one of his kin who threw a mistletoe dart at him, believing he was impervious to it. Like bone-sprain, so blood-sprain, so joint-sprain: Bone to bone, blood to blood, joints to joints, so may they be mended.
The relationship between Phol and Baldr is partly ambiguous, but appear to be co-identified in the charm. He is a mythological figure embodying sacrifice. In Lithuanian, the spirits of the dead are known by the similar word: Folklore often ascribed the creation of hills and mountains to the dropping or casting of great rocks by giant mythological figures, or the trampling of mythical horses ridden by giants. The steed of Hephaistos, even? The idea that the dead sacrifice themselves so that their souls might be reforged to generate more life seems to have underpinned ancient European belief, and this idea is embodied wholly within the story of Volund or Wayland.
The religious histories of Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism are full of hagiographies and worship or veneration centred upon those spiritual heroes who have attained the state of Siddha: You may be interested to know that Saint Fiacc is honoured on the 12th of October in the Irish Catholic tradition. The Gaelic Sidhe were believed to be providential spirits who interacted with the human world but enjoyed a purely spiritual existence.
The connections — both linguistic and cultural — seem too overt to ignore without further study. Her ability to fly, leap and shape-shift marks her out as exceptional and supernatural — the very model of a goddess, in fact. Mills were of course associated with ponds, lakes and water-courses, wind-powered mills not being known in ancient Ireland. They are therefore doubly associated with fertility and goodness, attaching a powerful aura of magical potency to them in folklore. The drudgery of hand-milling is also symbolic of the work of the lowly.
Milling is both a destructive and creative act, and this is almost certainly why the Cailleach is associated with it in some Irish literary and folklore traditions.
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The idea of magical females and fairies associated with mills was once apparently fairly widespread. The act of winnowing, hulling and grinding represents the uncovering and extraction of goodness: The same can be said of Frau Holle or Holda and the Huldra figures of Germanic and Scandinavian folklore, whose name represents the same concept, demonstrating a deep and ancient conceptual link shared between Eurasian and European cultures. Like the hearth of a house, the mill would have been associated with magical potency.
They are a familiar feature of folklore from across the British Isles and Ireland. A remnant of Cailleach worship? Holed stones and a necklace of glass beads and stones were among the grave goods of a pagan viking burial at Peel Castle in the Isle of Man. The English text is here. The fateful Cailleach threads her way repeatedly through this tale which essentially deals with the sovereignty of Ireland: When things are going bad for Fiachna Eolgarg unleashes a battalion of venemous sheep upon the Irish! After a period away, Mongan returns to Ireland replete with higher mystical knowledge and magical powers — a veritable incarnation of Manannan himself.
There were the nobles of Leinster going into the place, and a great feast was being prepared towards the marriage of Dubh-Lacha. And he vowed he would marry her. And they came to the green outside. And they saw a hack mare with an old pack- saddle upon her, carrying corn and flour from the mill. And when Mongan saw them, he said to Mac an Daimh: And he gave a stroke to the hag, who became a young girl, the fairest of form and make of the daughters of theworld,to wit, Ibhell of the Shining Cheeks, daughter of the king of Munster.
And he himself assumed the shape of Aedh, son of the king of Connaught, and Mac an Daimh he put into the shape of his attendant.
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And he made a shining-white palfrey with crimson hair, and of the pack-saddle he made a gilded saddle with variegated gold and precious stones. And they mounted two other mares in the shape of steeds, and in that way they reached the fortress. Mongan uses his magic wand to transform the hag into a beautiful young woman who gets the king drunk and sleeps with him.
Mongan and Dubh Lacha then make off. The next morning the king is found in bed with Cuimne — now transformed back into a gnarled hag, much to the dismay of his people. It is a tale of split loyalties and the tragedies of betrayal in love. The next morning Diarmuid and Oscar rose, and harnessed their fair bodies in their suits of arms of valor and battle, and those two mighty heroes went their way to the place of that combat, and woe to those, either many or few, who might meet those two good warriors when in anger.
Then Diarmuid and Oscar bound the rims of their shields together that they might not separate from one another in the fight.
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After that they proclaimed battle against Finn, and then the soldiers of the king of Alba said that they and their people would go to strive with them first. They came ashore forthwith, and rushed to meet and to encounter them, and Diarmuid passed under them, through them, and over them, as a hawk would go through small birds, or a whale through small fish, or a wolf through a large flock of sheep; and such was the dispersion and terror and scattering that those good warriors wrought upon the strangers, that not a man to tell tidings or to boast of great deeds escaped of them, but all of them fell by Diarmuid and by Oscar before the night came, and they themselves were smooth and free from hurt, having neither cut nor wound.
Finn came to her, and she received him joyfully. Finn told the cause of his travel and of his journey to the hag from first to last, and the reason of his strife with Diarmuid, and he told her that it was to seek counsel from her that he was then come; also that no strength of a host or of a multitude could conquer Diarmuid, if perchance magic alone might not conquer him. There are over names of Celtic deities, and many have several names. What follows is information about the most important gods. He had immortal strength and an enormous appetite.
He commanded a huge cauldron called the Undry with an endless supply of food, and he was always depicted with two pigs, one roasting, and one growing. He could kill many men with one blow of his excessively large club, but could also restore life using the other end. He played a magnificent and beloved harp with which he controlled the changing of the seasons and which would come to his hand when he called.
Occasionally, he was represented as an almost comic figure in his joviality and in his slightly too short tunic that barely covered his shoulders and buttocks. The Morrigan, the Phantom Queen, was the goddess of war, fate, death, priests and witches, revenge, violence, and the patron of servicemen and women. She brought the red-haired gene to the Irish. She does not take part in a battle, but, as a shapeshifter, she hovers overhead in the guise of a raven, a crow, and sometimes a vulture.
She is also the mother and daughter of the Dagda and possibly another aspect of the Morrigan. Her consort is Bhe. Her name means knowledge, wisdom, teacher, and wealth, and she is known as the Flowing One—associated with many rivers in Europe, especially the Danube.
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She is the universal mother; with the coming of Christianity, she was demonized as a witch who ate children. She has a surprising following to this day, and there are many rituals which you can use to contact her using this invocation: I ask you to be here. Aonghus Angus Og, Aengus, or Oengus of the Bruig is the very complex god of love, youth, beauty, music, protection of lovers, dream work, and creativity.
He played irresistible music on a silver harp. He owned a beautiful sword called Moralltach, the Great Fury, and a dun cow, both given to them by Manannan. He also had a magnificent horse. Aonghus was the result of an affair between the Dagda and Boann, water goddess of the Boyne. To hide this encounter, the Dagda made the sun stand still for nine months, so Aonghus was conceived, grown and born on one day. He was brought up by Midir and was a fine, brave, beautiful young man, and a loyal friend—often speeding to help other gods. After much searching, he found her chained with others destined to be turned into swans on the feast of Samhain.
Her name was Caer Ibormeith, and he was told he could marry her only if he could identify her after she had turned into a swan. Turning himself into a swan and, singing an enchanting song that put everybody to sleep for three days, they both flew away together. His grandfather, Balor of the Evil Eye, lived in fear of a myth that foretold his grandson would kill him. He, therefore, locked his only daughter, Ethlinn, in a crystal tower. Nevertheless, by way of magic means, Cian fathered Lugh with Ethlinn, and in a fury, Balor threw the infant into the roaring sea to drown.
Lugh was saved and nurtured by the sea god Manannan Mac Lir, and he grew into fine manhood. He was handsome, youthful and energetic, and always remained young. He had an impressive list of gifts and talents being a wright, a warrior, a champion, a harpist, a sorcerer, a cup-bearer, a brazier, a poet, a musician, a gifted blacksmith, a scholar, and a physician. Lugh was also very inventive and smart, so he said: Lugh is always honored at the Festival of Lughnasadh in August, and he is the patron of Lyons.
He also fulfilled the myth when he killed Balor at the Second Battle of Moytura Mag Tuireadh by smashing his evil eye right through the back of his skull with a brilliant sling shot. The quotes are from: Corpus of Electronic Texts: Diancecht is one of the more confusing and complex gods. Diancecht is remembered for his skill as a silversmith as well as his use of healing magic.
The remains of this can be seen at the Heapstown Cairn in County Sligo. Although Diancecht fashioned him a spectacularly successful silver hand, Nuada was still forced to step aside; Bres, the leader of the Foramini, was appointed king in an attempt to heal the feud between these two major tribes. This Miach did until his father struck him on the head, through the brain, to the neck—a wound even he could not heal. Airmid carefully separated all the medicinal herbs and plants according to their healing properties, but her distraught father destroyed the methodically tabled order, thus causing us forever to lose our ability to know which plant to use for which ill.
Many mythologies present stories of familial conflict, especially between father and son, but this instance of jealousy between two protagonists concerning the gift of healing is unusual. Remember that in Celtic mythology, the Underworld is not a dark place but a pleasant, light place where one lives happily if one has led a good life on earth.
Arawn is also a god of war, terror, revenge, and spirit contact. His best-loved pastime is hunting through the sky in autumn, winter, and early spring with his large pack of white, red-eared dogs, in search of stags and deceased human souls, whom he guides to the Otherworld. On the hunt, he is often accompanied by a frightening hag called Matilda of the Night. Brigit, the Exalted One. Also known as Bridgit, Brigindo, Bride, and Mistress of the Mantle, she is a goddess of fire, the forge, light and the sun, wells and springs, healing, childbirth, poetry, smithcraft, and martial arts.
She was born as the sun rose, and wherever she walked, small flowers and shamrocks would appear. She grew up on the milk from a sacred white cow that lived in the Otherworld. She was so beloved by the Celtic people that she had to be assimilated to Christianity as St. Her father was the Dagda; her mother, the Morrigan. She was married to Bres, in an effort to heal a rift that had opened between the Irish tribes, but this strategy was a failure. Brigit had three sons: Ruadan Brian , Luchar, and Uar, all famous warriors. When Ruadan was killed in battle, her grief was overwhelming, and her lamentations were heard around the universe—this is said to be the origin of the Irish custom of keening at a death.
She had threefold power from fire: At her shrine in Kildare, a perpetual flame was tended by the women who studied with her, and it burned brightly for over one thousand years. You can still visit her sacred well at Kildare. Tradition has it that you dip a little piece of cloth called a clootie into the water, and then wipe it over a wound that needs healing.
You then tie the clootie to the rag tree nearby, usually an ash or whitethorn tree, as an offering to the spirit of the well and, as the cloth disintegrates, so your wound or illness would be healed. There are such wells dedicated to the goddess Brigit all over Ireland, Scotland, and Britain. Boann, Goddess of the River Boyne. Also known as Boannan and Boyne. She also has powers of healing, fertility, and water magic. Her husband was Nechtan, the god of water and the guardian of the Sidhe Nechtan, the Well of Segais, the fountainhead of knowledge and wisdom.
The well was surrounded by nine hazel trees of wisdom, and the nuts used to fall into the well and feed the speckled salmon who lived there. This is the origin of the myth that salmon are great guardians of knowledge. No one except Nechtan and his cupbearers was allowed to approach the well. Boann was curious, and whether it was a desire for more power, a thirst for wisdom, or perhaps seeking cleansing from conceiving her son, Aonghus, by the Dagda, she approached the well one day while she was walking her dog, Dabilla. She circled it three times widdershins, or anticlockwise, challenging the water and chanting an incantation.
The waters of the well rose up and swept them both away as it flooded the land and forged a pathway to the sea. This became the River Boyne. In some versions of the myth, the waters divided into five streams, each representing one of our senses; sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing. Manannan, the great god of the sea, said: And no one will have knowledge who drinketh not a draught out of the fountain itself and out of the streams. Maeve Medb is an exceptionally interesting deity, and also a historical figure as the Queen of Connaught.
She was incredibly strong, a brilliant and inspiring warrior, a horsewoman par excellence, a fine hunter, and a charismatic—or perhaps demented—leader, intensely competitive and fiercely persistent. She represented the height of feminine power and rewarded her most outstanding soldiers with delightful sexual favors. However, her favorite lover was Fergus Roich of the Red Branch. Sadly, she too was tamed by the fierce Christianity which took root in Ireland with the arrival of St.
Patrick in CE. He was the god of blacksmiths and metal craft, and he made all the major weaponry for the warriors of the goddess Dana. In the great battles between the Tuatha and the Fomorians, the latter was always frustrated by the fact that they would kill the same soldiers, carrying brand new weapons, day after day. In frustration, they sent a spy to the Tuatha camp to discover the secret of this magic.
There may have been another factor: Suitable quantities of this drink were, of course, distributed before major battles. It was an agrarian culture for the most part, but it was not without wealth; archaeological investigations have come across over Celtic gold mine sites in France alone. They had an oral tradition, and bards would recite the great sagas of the people at the three yearly gathering at the Feis of Tara, where the governing rules were reviewed, major disputes were resolved, and new laws and regulations would be promulgated.
It is said that five great roads radiated across the country from Tara Hill to the five regions, each ruled by a king or a Ri Tuath. These are Ulster in the north, Connaught in the west, Munster in the south, Leinster in the east, and Mide Meath at its center. Regarding social structure, the majority of the farmers were Feines or freemen. People certainly honored their ancestors and were close to the gods they worshipped.
They were tightly organized around kinship groups, known as clans. The largest clans would be headed by a chief or Taoiseach; smaller clans would have a chieftain. The leaders were of the Flaith or noble class. There was also a respected class of craftsmen and artisans.
The druids were the religious leaders and the link to the spiritual realm; they were also the teachers, the philosophers, the astronomers, the healers, the politicians, and the judges. Essentially, a senior druid would have a long apprenticeship behind him—typically 20 years—and he often wielded as much power as a minor king.
The Celtic people seldom built temples—they had no need. The sanctity of nature was an inescapable part of their worship, and the land itself was a permanent temple. Sacred places were often located near a water source, especially a well, spring, or a lake. A grove of trees would come to surround hallowed ground. Sacred bogs have revealed human burial sites containing objects like statues, decorations, and the remnants of food and necessities for the journal to the Otherworld.
The bog burial sites also suggest that the Celts may well have performed human sacrifices at one time, as the evidence of several bodies found suggests violent death as a result of several causes—none of which natural. If it was a ritual death, what was the reason? To protect his clan from intruders? To ensure a good harvest? To bring a safe winter? Celtic life and religious observation were tied to the farming cycle and, in a truly Irish way, it begins in winter with the observation of Samhain, around October 31 and November 1.
At this time, the living were thought to be very close to those in the Otherworld—spirits could warm themselves at a communal hearth, and bards could sing their way across the threshold; festivals could be a little wild. Oh man and woman whatever impedes the appearance of light in your life.
Even the warrior elite put up their weapons and remembered their dead. Then, in early spring, as the lambing time arrived and the ewes came into milk, the goddess Brigit would come into her own: This was the time of Imbolc, around February 1. It was a gentle time, and the druid festivals would include honoring the Mother Goddess with eight candles placed in a circle in a decorated vessel of spring water.
Beltane is the next seasonal festivity and is the origin of May Day. It is associated with Belenus, one of the sun gods; a purification ritual would implore the sun to release itself from its wintery death.