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under-the-lake · 3 years

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Samhain Part 2 - Celtic Mythology: What Happened Then?

A lot of stories are connected with Samhain. Many legends tell about events that happened at or around that time. Since Samhain was a time to settle debts, conflicts and all that sort of things, it sounds quite natural that some of the key events of the Celtic world took place at that time. Often they are stories about gods or mythical folks. Here are two stories, probably the most well known, and a good first insight into Celtic myths. Beware if you are not familiar with the characters, you might end up like I did at the beginning of my research, learning a completely new language.

And be warned, those two stories are compilations of many sources, so the stories you might be familiar with may differ slightly.

Illustration: Balor’s grave - http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/moytura/moytura2.html

Dramatis Personae

It is never clear, wherever you look, what the genealogy of those people are, unless clearly stated in tales. Therefore I will not try and suggest anything out of those lines.

Warning: I haven't put any illustrations here, because these are stories and you should make your own pictures.

Aillén Mag Midgna - called ‘the burner’, harassed Tara every Samhain until Fionn Mac Cumhaill killed him.

Balor of the Evil Eye - Fomorian king of the Hebrides, his eyelid must be lifted by four men to open, and when so, Balor’s gaze is deadly and can reduce an army to impotence. Granddad of Lug Lámfhota and killed by him in the second Battle of Mag Tuired.

Bres - son of Elatha of the Fomorie and Ériu of the Túatha Dé. Hateful king of the Túatha Dé, replaced Nuadu after the latter had his hand cut. His ungenerous and unkingly rule resulted in his being deposed as king, and his brooding over battle to regain his kingdom, which in turn resulted in the second Battle of Mag Tuired.

Elatha mac Delbaíth - Fomorian king, father of Bres.

Ériu - goddess of Ireland (Éire), mother of Bres. Ériu is one of the Túatha Dé.

Fionn Mac Cumhaill - main hero of the Fenian Cycle, liberator of Tara against Aillén Mac Midgna, one of the aos sídhe.

Lug Lámfhota - son of Eithne daughter of Balor of the Evil Eye, the Fomorian king of the Hebrides, and of Cian son of Dian Cécht, the Túatha Dé god of healing. Lug is therefore the grandson of Balor, and this is important. Lug is also called Lug Samildánach, meaning ‘master of all the arts’, because he indeed masters them all, as will come in handy when he wants to enter Tara.

Nuadu (Nuadu Airgetlám) - king of the Túatha Dé, who loses his hand during the first battle of Mag Tuired and is replaced by Bres, son of Elatha of the Fomoire.

Ogma - orator and warrior. One of the three main champions of the Túatha Dé. The Dagda’s brother.

The aos sídhe - barrow dwellers, people of the sídh, i.e. fairies. Sídh are funeral barrows that open at Samhain and let people walk from one world to the other.

The Dagda - the ‘good god’, leader of the Tátha Dé Danann. Ogma’s brother.

The Fir Bolg - aka the Men (fir) of Builgh, are the fourth of a series of six invaders of early Ireland according to Lebor Gabála Érenn. They were replaced by the Túatha Dé.

The Fomorie - Malevolent deities of early Ireland, constantly raiding and tricking against the inhabitants of Ireland, according to Lebor Gabála Érenn.

The Morrigan - the Irish goddess of war fury.

The Túatha Dé Danann - people of immortals, who precede the mortals in the pseudo-history of Ireland, Lebor Gabála Érenn. Their main foe are the Fomorie.

The Second (and final) Battle of Mag Tuired

The Second Battle of Mag Tuired (various spellings according to language) is said to have happened during Samhain. It is the final battle between the ‘Good god’ the Dagda, Lug, and their spiritual folk the Túatha Dé Danann, and the Fomoire. It is actually one of two texts that recount how the Túatha Dé Danann settled in Ireland and how they were taught agricultural basics by the Fomoire. It is a story of intercourse between men and women of both cultures, producing heroes who choose loyalties and fight each other. A story of oppression and freedom, of magic and war.

The Túatha Dé Danann had come to Ireland from the north, challenged the local people called the Fir Bolg (men of Builg), into either giving them Ireland or fighting. The Fir Bolg, who had been there only 37 years, chose to fight, and the Túatha Dé king Nuadu had his hand cut. The Túatha Dé were still winning, and a truce was called, but the Fir Bolg still chose to fight, and after a while they conceded victory, were allowed to keep a part of Ireland for themselves, and the Túatha Dé Danann settled in. That was the first battle of Mag Tuired.

The Túatha Dé Danann leader Nuadu couldn’t be their king anymore because of a rule set by the goddess Brigid, that no one can be king if their limbs are not complete. So another man, Bres, was chosen as king. Bres was the offspring of a union between a Túatha Dé Danann woman called Ériu and a Fomorian king called Elatha. The Fomorian are the malevolent people, the ones who raid and never settle. Bres, considering himself more loyal to the Fomorie, oppressed his fellow Túatha Dé Danann folk. He set the Dagda to build him a fort and Ogma to fetch wood! Probably even worse, king Bres was not generous. Eventually, the Túatha Dé rebelled, deposed Bres as king, and restored the no-longer crippled Nuadu. The latter had had a new hand made of silver for him by Dian Cecht, the god of physicians (not the only silver hand we know of, is it? Rings a Wormtail bell, Potterheads?).

Bres went away but started plotting for his restoration. He tried to get his fellow Fomorians to help, but most of them, including his parents, agreed he acted foolishly and selfishly. However, Balor of the Evil Eye, king of the Hebrides, agreed to support him. Balor had been told he would be slain by a grandson, but apparently he didn’t think much of this, because he was a danger himself: Balor couldn’t open his eye unless four men lifted his eyelid, but once it was open, any army looking at the eye would be rendered powerless. His look was lethal. Surely such an ally would grant Bres an easy victory, should he consider battle against the Túatha Dé Danann?

Meanwhile, Nuadu was reigning happily at Tara over a now content people, and though the thought of a Fomorian raid nagged him from time to time, he didn't really bother. One day, a foreigner arrived at the gates of Tara with his suite of warriors. He was handsome and looked noble. The tradition was not to let anyone join the household who could not bring a new talent to Tara. The ritual was carried on with the newcomer, who introduced himself to the gatekeepers Camel and Gamel as Lug Lonnansclech, son of Cían son of Dían Cécht, and of Ethne daughter of Balor (see picture, credit British Museum, London). Lug listed his talents, which were smith, champion, harpist, warrior, poet and historian, sorcerer, physician, cupbearer and brazier. Each one was individually countered by the answer ‘We do not need one. We have a [insert talent] already, Luchta mac Lúachada.’ In the end, Lug asks the gatekeeper to ask the king if he has one man who possesses all these arts. The doorkeeper goes to king Nuadu and announces a warrior named Samildánach, meaning ‘master of all arts’, who has come to help Nuadu’s people. Lug then proves his talents by beating all competitors set to confront him. Nuadu recognises Lug’s claim and welcomes him to Tara, eventually stepping down from the throne in Lug’s favour. Lug rules for thirteen years, in peace. However, news from the Fomorie start to trigger people into action, and Lug retires to a secret place with four other leaders to discuss and plan battle. They stay there for three years (or one, depending on sources). The druids and sorcerers of Ireland, the warriors and mountains and all craftsmen of Tara were asked what they would do to ensure the Túatha Dé a victory over the Fomorie.

A week before Samhain, the Dagda went to his house in the north, because he had arranged to meet with a woman there. They united, and she told him she’d kill the king of the Fomorie with the help of the Túatha Dé. And so was done. And the woman was the Morrigan.

Then Lug sent the Dagda over to the Fomorian camp to spy, ask for a truce, and delay the enemy until the Túatha Dé are ready. However, when the Dagda arrives there, the Fomorians humiliate him by making him eat so much porridge and meat he cannot walk. All is not lost though, because on his way back, the Dagda meets Domnu, the Fomorian goddess, who promises to help the Túatha Dé against her own folks.

The Túatha Dé were ready for battle at Samhain. As the battle begins, slaughter follows and soon Mag Tuired is a pool of blood. The Túatha Dé are favoured by all the skills the Tara people possess: warriors are healed by Dian Cécht, Lug comes to battle as a sorcerer to aid his armies. Balor of the Evil Eye, the Fomorian, is ready to strike. He kills Nuadu. However, Lug is ready for the encounter, but he knows he cannot come face to face with his grandad, because of the eye. So he comes up with a plan to strike from afar. He throws a slingstone at Balor’s eye, and the stone goes through it, crashes through the back of Balor’s skull, killing twenty-seven Fomorians on the way. This was the end of the Fomorian resistance. They were all driven away, never to return to Ireland. Bres - remember him? The ungenerous king who wanted revenge and went to Balor for that? - well, Bres, who had sworn to decapitate Lug, cannot honour his promise because he is captured. After some negotiations in which Bres promises impossible things first and is rebuked, Bres is allowed to live so that he can advise farmers about ploughing, sowing and reaping.

And that was a short version of the story of the second battle of Mag Tuired, which happened at Samhain, between the Túatha Dé Danann and their Fomorian enemy, and from which the most important gain was learnings to make agriculture and farming better.

The history of Fionn Mac Cumhaill and Aillén Mac Midgna

The aos sídhe, who lived in the barrows called sídh (pronounce ‘shee’), have been believed to be fairies, or Túatha Dé Dannan who had been driven underground, and sometimes even as the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Ireland. They were known to be able to walk freely between their barrows and the world of the living during the period of Samhain. Some say one could actually see the fires lit within the sídh during that time. During the rest of the time, farmers avoided cattle grazing on the sídh and didn’t walk paths leading to and from them.

Fionn mac Cumhaill, apart from being credited for creating the Isle of Man (where he’s known as Finn McCooil) by tearing a huge bit of earth from the province of Ulster and tossing it into the Irish Sea, and being part of a huge lot of tales in Irish folklore (the Fenian Cycle), has a part to play in a tale involving one of the aos sí at Samhain. It is an important tale because it is an important deed Fionn did that night.

It is said that Tara was destroyed yearly during twenty-three years (some sources say nine) at Samhain by one of the Túatha Dé Danann, a fairy musician who lived in Sídh Finnachad, up north. He was called Aillén Mac Midgna, but also went by the nickname ‘the burner’. And for a good reason. Each Samhain, Aillén Mac Midgna came to Tara and played his timpán. It’s a kind of small drum, according to certain sources (MacKillop, 2006) or a precursor of the Celtic harp according to most online sources. Whatever the real form of the instrument, Aillén would come and play sweet music. However, his real intentions were mean. His music rendered listeners sleepy. Once the residents of Tara were asleep, Aillén would puke flaming rocks onto the palace, which would burn to the ground. He would burn it for twenty-three years, and for twenty three years the people of Tara would rebuild it. Fionn suggested he helps Tara get rid of Aillén, in exchange of which service he would be reinstated head of a restored Clan Baíscne (that is yet another story, the one of the fall of Clan Baíscne, but not one for today - any good book on Irish myths will give it to you though). All the nobles, poets and druids of Tara agree with the arrangement. So now, how does Fionn make himself immune to the power of Aillén’s music? Well he owns a spear, which point is so venomous it forbids sleep. Fionn breathes the poison of his own sword, thus making himself immune to the Sleeping Power of music. He is ready. When Aillén, having put the rest of the Tara people to sleep, blurts out his flame, Fionn deflects it with his own cloak, which drives the fire downwards onto the earth, where it creates a huge crater. Like all tyrants, Aillén is a weak thing. He flees north, towards his sídh, once he sees his powers not only challenged but thwarted. Aillén is not fast enough, though. Fionn is at his heels, and soon catches up and impales Aillén on his spear. Fionn chops Aillén’s head off, brings it back to Tara, and displays it on a spike as proof of his victory. The people of Tara keep their promise to Fionn.

And these are two important stories connected with Irish mythology and Samhain. Hope you enjoyed! I did doing the research and learning a lot!

Sources

Online Sources:

http://www.carrowkeel.com/index.html

Text of the Second Battle of Mag Tuired: https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T300010/index.html

Bookses and Papers

Farrar, J., Farrar, S., & Bone, G. (2001). The Complete Dictionary of European Gods and Goddesses. Capall Bann Publishing, Berks, UK.

Harari, Y. N. (2014). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Random House.

MacKillop, J. (2006). Myths and Legends of the Celts. Penguin UK.

Meuleau, M. (2004). Les Celtes en Europe. Ed. Ouest-France.

Rees, A., & Rees, B. (1991). Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales. 1961. Reprint.

#Samhain #MagTuired #SecondBattleofMagTuired #Louhi #lug #TheDagda #TheTúathaDéDanann #Fomorie #Balor #Bres #Nuadu #Fionn #Aillén #Tara #Moytura

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