Celtic Mythology. John Arnott MacCulloch
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of this the Tuatha De Danann were defeated.
"We boldly gave battle
To the sprites (siabhra) of the isle of Banba, Of which ten hundred fell together By us, of the Tuatha Dé Danann."
At another conflict a further rout took place, in which the three Kings and Queens were slain; and it was now that the survivors of the Tuatha Dé Danann took refuge in the underground síd, the Milesians remaining masters of Ireland.4 On whatever this account is based, it is not itself an ancient pagan myth, for gods worshipped by men are not defeated by them or by their supposititious ancestors. By the annalists, real races, imaginary races, and divine groups were regarded more or less from one standpoint; all were human and might be made to fight each other. Next came the question—How were the old gods abandoned, and why had they been, or were even now, supposed popularly to live in the síd? It was known that the Christianized tribes had forsaken the gods, though these had come to be regarded by them as a kind of fairy race living out of sight, to whom in time of need and sub rosa they might appeal. Obviously, then, Christianity must have caused their defeat. To this idea we may trace one source of the account just summarized. It is, in effect, what is said in the Colloquy with the Ancients (Acallamh na Senórach), in which, regardless of the annalistic scheme, the gods are powerful long after their supposed defeat. Caoilte, survivor of the Féinn into the days of St. Patrick, says that soon the Tuatha Dé Danann will be reduced in power, for the saint "will relegate them to the foreheads of hills and rocks, unless that now and again thou see some poor one of them appear as transiently he revisits the earth," i. e. the haunts of men.5 Hence, perhaps, the Colloquy elsewhere represents them as possessing not so much land as will support themselves.6 In St. Patrick's Life this victory is dramatically represented. He went to Mag Slecht, where stood an image of Cenn Crúaich ("Head of the Mound "), covered with gold and silver, and twelve others covered with bronze. The chief image bowed downward when he raised his crozier, and the earth swallowed the others, while their indwelling demons, cursed by the saint, fled to the hill.
Why, then, was the defeat ascribed to the Milesians? Of the different hostile Celtic groups dwelling in different parts of Ireland, two at last became pre-eminent shortly before St. Patrick's time, governed by great dynastic families and reigning respectively at Cashel and Tara. It was for their aggrandizement that the legend of descent from Mile and his ancestors was invented; but as the gods had come to be regarded as a powerful race who had conquered earlier races in Ireland, so it became necessary to show that the Milesians had overcome them. This pushed the Milesians back to remote antiquity and showed that they had been masters of Ireland since 1700 B.C., while the Tuatha De Danann, whose power had passed at the coming of Christianity, were now alleged to have been conquered by them. Thus the central theory of those mediæval reconstructors of Irish history was "that Ireland had been subjected to the Milesian race for ages before the Christian era." Later, the Ulster heroes were brought into relationship with Mile, as at last were all the Irish aristocracy.7
Mile (Latin miles, "soldier") and Bile are men of straw with no place in the older mythology, and hence the attempts of Rhys and d'Arbois to equate Bile with Balor and with a Celtic Dispater, as god of death and ancestor of the Celts, are nothing but modern mythologizing. The account of the conquest doubtless made use of earlier conceptions of supernatural power and magic, while still apt to consider the Tuatha Dé Danann as somehow different from men (siabhra, "sprites"), this being the popular view and also current in literary tales embodying older myths. The gods were a superhuman race, the síde, helping men on occasion; and this influenced the official view, for euhemeristic documents tell how, after their defeat, the Tuatha Dé Danann retired to subterranean palaces, emerging now and then to help or to harm mortals. Even the Milesians were not yet free of their power, especially that of Dagda. Their corn and milk were being destroyed by the Tuatha Dé Danann, and to prevent this in future they made friends with Dagda, so that now these things were spared to them.8 This story seems to be the late form of the earlier mythic idea that corn and milk depend on the gods, who, when offended by men, withhold these gifts. They were also obtained by sacrifice, e. g. by offerings of children and animal firstlings to Cenn Crúaich;9 and elsewhere we find that the Fomorians exacted two-thirds of their corn and milk annually from the Nemedians,10 Perhaps there is here a mingling of the idea of destruction by gods of blight with that of the withholding of such gifts and with that of the offering of these things. A survival of such sacrifices occurs in the food and milk left out for the fairies in Ireland and in the West Highlands.
The functions of some of the divinities as controllers of fertility are suggested by references of this character, as well as by the symbols on Gaulish monuments; and some folk-lore collected by Mr. D. Fitzgerald in Limerick shows how the memory of these functions vaguely persisted under a romantic dress. Cnoc Aine (Knockainy, or "Aine's Hill") has always been considered the dwelling of Aine, queen of the fairies of South Munster and daughter of Eogabal, of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Aine, "the best-hearted woman that ever lived," is still seen in Loch Guirr or on Cnoc Aine. She married Lord Desmond after he had captured her—the usual fairy bride incident——and bore him a son. Both she and the son left him, but appeared from time to time afterward, the son becoming Earl of Desmond in due course. Once he spoke to his mother about the barrenness of the hill, and next morning it was planted with pease set by her at night—a significant hint of her functions. Remnants of the agricultural ritual survived into last century in the form of a procession round the hill on St. John's Eve with cléars—bunches of straw tied on poles and lit, these being afterward carried through fields and cattle to bring luck to both. One year this was neglected, but a mysterious procession, with cléars, headed by Aine, was seen on the hill. On another occasion girls who had remained after the usual procession had gone met Aine, who thanked them for the honour done to her but begged them to depart as "they wanted the hill to themselves," "they" being Aine's retinue, seen by the girls through a ring which she produced.11 Aine was thus obviously associated with fertility-rites.
It now remains to be seen how, according to the annalistic account, after their defeat and retirement to the hollow hills or síd, the gods divided these among themselves, while at the same time one of their number acted as king.
CHAPTER III
THE DIVISION OF THE SÍD
Celtic deities may have been associated in pagan times with hills and pre-historic tumuli, especially those near the Boyne; and within these was the subterranean land of the gods, who also dwelt on distant islands. If this were the case, it would help to explain why mounds were regarded as the retreats of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and why they are still supposed to emerge thence as a kind of fairies. If the folk believed that the old gods had always been associated with mounds, it was easy for the euhemeristic writers to evolve a legend of their having retired there after being defeated by the Milesians.
Within these hills and mounds were their gorgeous palaces, replete with all Elysian joys. These hollow hills were known as síd, a word possibly cognate with Latin sedes, and hence perhaps meaning "seats of the gods"; and their divine inhabitants were the áes'síde, fir'síde, mná síde, "the people [or "men" or "women"] of the síd," or simply "the síde. These are everywhere regarded as the Tuatha Dé Danann or their descendants. Men used to worship the síde, says St. Fiacc's hymn, while the daughters of King Loegaire regarded St. Patrick and his white-robed bishops as áes'síde, appearing on earth.1 In later times the síde were held to be fairies and were called by various names, but these fairies closely resemble the earlier síde, the Tuatha Dé Danann, while they are not necessarily of small stature. In this they are very like the fées of mediaeval French belief—romantic survivals of earlier goddesses.
In some stories the síde are associated both with the síd and with the island Elysium, these being regarded as synonymous—the goddess with whom Connla elopes is of the áes'síde, yet she comes from the island overseas. The confusion may be due to