The battle of Cúchulainn and Ferdiad

Celtic mythology is an umbrella term for the folklore of Celtic polytheism, or the various religions of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts had a polytheistic spirituality and stucture which recognized many gods, goddesses, nature spirits and ancestral worship. For Celts in close contact with Ancient Rome, such as the Gauls and Celtiberians, their mythology did not survive the Roman Empire, their subsequent conversion to Christianity and the loss of their Celtic languages.

It is mostly through contemporary Roman and Christian sources that their mythology was preserved and it is therefore filtered through the viewpoints of people who were their enemies during their time. Therefore such sources should be taken with a grain of salt. The Celts who maintained their political and/or linguistic identities (such as the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland, the Welsh in Wales, and the Celtic Britons of southern Great Britain and Brittany) left vestigial remnants of their ancestral mythologies that were put into written form during the Middle Ages by Christian monks.

Let’s learn about the celts!

Here, we will try to give a bit of a 101 course in these early people’s beliefs as seen through the eyes of some of our characters in the stories of Hy-Brasil.

Some of the primary sources we have for these stories are The Ulster Cycle, The Fenian Cycle, The Cycles of the Kings and The Mabinogi. At it’s height, the Celtic world covered most of western and central Europe and reached far enough south that the Greeks were the first people to call them Celts using their term, Keltoi for them.

The oldest myths stemming from the Heroic Age are found only from the early medieval period of Ireland. As Christianity began to take over, the gods and goddesses were slowly eliminated from the culture or incorporated as saints in the new religion in cases where the people loved their gods and goddesses too much to let their memories die.

What survives includes tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians, which forms the basis for the Cath Maige Tuired, which in turn translates as “The Battle of Mag Tuireadh”. Also, portions of the history-focused Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of Invasions). The Tuatha Dé represent the functions of human society such as kingship, crafts and war, while the Fomorians represent chaos and wild nature for the most part in these tales.

The Dagda

The leader of the gods in the Irish tales based on the sources available is the Dagda also known as “The Good God”. The Dagda is the figure on which male humans and other gods are based because he embodies what are considered to be the ideal Irish traits. Celtic gods are also considered to be a clan (family) due to their lack of specialization and unknown origins. The particular character of the Dagda is often the subject of burlesque lampooning in Irish mythology, and some scholars even conclude that he is trusted to be benevolent enough to tolerate jokes at his own expense.

Irish tales also show the Dagda as a figure of power, armed with a club. In Dorset there is a famous outline of a giant with an erect penis called the Cerne Abbas Giant with a club cut into the chalky soil. It is now believed that this was probably produced in relatively modern times (English Civil War era). But it has long been thought to be a representation of the Dagda. In Gaul, it is speculated that the Dagda is associated with Sucellus, the striker, equipped with a hammer and cup.

On Hy-Brasil the village of Baile na Dagda is named in honor of this god.

The Morrígan

The Morrígan is a threefold warrior goddess of the Celts of Ancient Ireland and Scotland as well as the current ones living on Hy-Brasil and New Caledonia. She is most commonly known as the Morrígan, but the different facets she is recognized as are also referred to as Nemain, Macha, and Badb (among other, less common names), with each representing different aspects of combat. She is most commonly known for her involvement in the Táin Bó Cúailnge, also known as The Cattle Raid of Cooley or The Táin.

The hero of those tales, Cú Chulainn is both helped and hindered by beings from the Tuatha Dé Danann. Before one combat the Morrígan, visits him in the form of a beautiful young woman and offers him her love, but Cú Chulainn spurns her. She then reveals herself and threatens to interfere in his next fight, which she does in the form of an eel who trips him in the ford, then as a wolf who stampedes cattle across the ford, and then as a heifer at the head of the stampede, but in each form, Cú Chulainn wounds her.

After the battle

After he defeats his opponent, the Morrígan appears to him in the form of an old woman milking a cow, with the wounds Cú Chulainn gave her in each of the animal forms she had taken. She offers him three drinks of milk from her cow. With each drink he blesses her, and the blessings heal her wounds. Cú Chulainn tells the Morrígan that had he known her real identity, he would not have spurned her.

Lugh or Lug

The god who appears most frequently in the tales of the Ulster Cycle is Lugh (whose name means Light). He is believed to be derived from the more widespread god Lugus, whose diffusion in Celtic religion is apparent from the number of place names in which his name appears across the Celtic world. The most famous of these are the cities of Lugdunum (the modern French city of Lyon), Lugdunum Batavorum (Brittenburg, 10 kilometers west of Leiden in the Netherlands) and Lucus Augusti (the modern Galician city of Lugo).

Lugh is said to have once been a High King of Ireland and was a youthful, fierce warrior as well as a leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He is a master in all skills including the arts and crafts and truth, oaths and the law. One of his names is Lugh Long Arm, (hence the phrase, “Long arm of the law.”?) He is also said to have fathered the famous Irish warrior Cu Chulainn mentioned above. Lugh is described in the Celtic myths as the last to be added to the list of deities. In Ireland a festival called the Lughnasadh is held in his honor but it is said that the first such festival was held by Lugh himself.

Honoring the dead

To honor his foster mother who died on August 1st, Lugh held the first Óenach, or Aonach, the bringing of people together to commemorate a death. In modern Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic), the month of August still bears the name Lúnasa .

Fairies

Also referred to as The Sidhe, Aos Sí “hill folk,” “the gentry,” “wee folk,” “good folk,” “blessed folk,” “good neighbors,” or “fair folk” among other euphemisms used by the Irish and some Scottish, or to the Welsh, Tylwyth Teg where some names for them include Bendith y Mamau (“Blessing of the Mothers”), Gwyllion and Ellyllon. “Fair Folk” was shortened to Fairies due to it being considered bad luck to refer to the Sidhe (Tuatha de Dannan) by name.

Other names worth mentioning in fairy lore are Banshee, Leprechaun, and Puca. The Banshee (bean si) is the female, or “Ban” sidhe, but more particularly, was known for screaming like a mortal woman when a family member died, whether the deceased was present in the family home or not. The Leprechaun (luprachan) was widely known in North America, but less so in Ireland. It was a localized term from north Leinster for a diminutive guardian of hidden treasure. William Butler Yeats said the leprechauns were descended from the Fomorians. Another race that inhabited Ireland before the arrival of the Tuatha de Danann (The people of the goddess Danú).

Other fairy types

The Puca (Puck) was originally a supernatural animal that took people for nightmarish rides, leaving them exhausted the next day. All the Sidhe (or Si, in modern Irish) were associated with many supernatural abilities. Believed to live side by side with the human world, both beneficial and harmful interactions would take place. Fairies are sometimes feared to be interested in stealing people, especially babies of new mothers, and if someone falls ill, people might wonder if they are a “changeling,” left by the Sidhe in place of the original healthy person.

The dreaded “Slua Sidhe” of fairies is an evening group outing of fairies, thought to be out to do some mischief or harm. Fairies, however, are also welcomed when they help the poor, do chores, leave money for people or endow people with some great talent, so they aren’t always considered evil doers. In Scottish folklore, faeries are divided into the Seelie Court (more benevolent, but still dangerous) and the Unseelie Court (more malevolent toward humankind).

Protections

The uncertainties that the Sidhe present make some people seek protections for themselves against fairy mischief. Among the measures taken are, putting iron on a barn or house (On old Earth it is said people might place a horseshoe over a door. In the Retglainn Occulti it is common to see a pair of iron boots in an item frame in such places), tying on a red ribbon or protective amulet (or holding one in one’s off hand) , or sprinkling rooms or people with urine (Yes, gross, but fairies are considered too fastidious to abide this) On Hy-Brasil and New Caledonia, splash potions of healing sometimes suffice for this purpose Especially against Donn’s undead forces.

It is believed dangerous to disturb fairy dwellings, including raths (ancient forts), lisses (abandoned homesteads), and hills. Isolated trees and bushes are also regarded to be their domain and, therefore, should be left untouched. If a person is taken to a fairy kingdom, cautionary tales warn not to partake of the food if one wishes to ever return to mortal realms. If people spend too much time with the fair folk, they could get “fairy stroke” or “poic sidhe,” and become all- knowing, yet fools. May Eve and Samhain Eve (Halloween) are especially associated with fairy movement, so people tend to stay indoors or at least avoid fairy paths on those nights.

Keep your luck on the good side

Bad luck is also linked to any construction on fairy paths at any time. Because fairies can use their “glamour” (enchantment) and change form or put on the “feth fiadh” (cloak of concealment) at will, attempts are often made to keep them appeased. Food is left out for them; the first drops of milk are put on the floor for them, and walls may receive a libation of the first drops of whisky from a still in order to keep the fair folk satisfied.