Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race Part 53

67 The Irish Mythological Cycle, by dArbois de Jubainville, p. 6l.

The Dinnsenchus in question is an early Christian doc.u.ment. No trace of a being like Crom Cruach has been found as yet in the pagan literature of Ireland, nor in the writings of St. Patrick, and I think it is quite probable that even in the time of St. Patrick human sacrifices had become only a memory.

68 A representation of human sacrifice has, however, lately been discovered in a Temple of the Sun in the ancient Ethiopian capital, Mero.

69 You [Celts] who by cruel blood outpoured think to appease the pitiless Teutates, the horrid sus with his barbarous altars, and Tara.n.u.s whose worship is no gentler than that of the Scythian Diana, to whom captive were offered up. (Lucan, Pharsalia, i.

444.) An altar dedicated to sus has been discovered in Paris.

70 Mont Mercure, Mercur, Mercoirey, Montmartre (_Mons Mercurii_), &c.

71 To this day in many parts of France the peasantry use terms like _annuit, on, anneue_, &c., all meaning to-night, for _aujourdhui_ (Bertrand, Rel. des G., p. 356).

72 The _fili_, or professional poets, it must be remembered, were a branch of the Druidic order.

73 For instance, Pelagius in the fifth century; Columba, Columba.n.u.s, and St. Gall in the sixth; Fridolin, named _Viator_, the Traveller, and Fursa in the seventh; Virgilius (Feargal) of Salzburg, who had to answer at Rome for teaching the sphericity of the earth, in the eighth; Dicuil, the Geographer, and Johannes Scotus Erigenathe master mind of his epochin the ninth.

74 Dealgnaid. I have been obliged here, as occasionally elsewhere, to modify the Irish names so as to make them p.r.o.nounceable by English readers.

75 See p. 48, _note_ 1.

76 I follow in this narrative R.I. Bests translation of the Irish Mythological Cycle of dArbois de Jubainville.

77 De Jubainville, Irish Mythological Cycle, p. 75.

78 p.r.o.nounced Yeohee. See Glossary for this and other words.

79 The science of the Druids, as we have seen, was conveyed in verse, and the professional poets were a branch of the Druidic Order.

80 Meyer and Nutt, Voyage of Bran, ii. 197.

81 Moytura means The Plain of the Towers_i.e._, sepulchral monuments.

82 Shakespeare alludes to this in As You Like It. I never was so be-rhymed, says Rosalind, since Pythagoras time, that I was an Irish ratwhich I can hardly remember.

83 Lyons, Leyden, Laon were all in ancient times known as _Lug-dunum,_ the Fortress of Lugh. _Luguvallum_ was the name of a town near Hadrians Wall in Roman Britain.

84 It is given by him in a note to the Four Masters, vol. i. p. 18, and is also reproduced by de Jubainville.

85 The other two were The Fate of the Children of Lir and The Fate of the Sons of Usna. The stories of the Quest of the Sons of Turenn and that of the Children of Lir have been told in full by the author in his High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances, and that of the Sons of Usna (the Deirdre Legend) by Miss Eleanor Hull in her Cuchulain, both published by Harrap and Co

86 OCurrys translation from the bardic tale, The Battle of Moytura.

87 OCurry, Manners and Customs, iii. 214.

88 The ancient Irish division of the year contained only these three seasons, including autumn in summer (OCurry, Manners and Customs, iii. 217).]

89 S.H. OGrady, Silva Gadelica, p. 191.

90 Pp. 104 _sqq._, and _pa.s.sim_.

91 OGrady, _loc. cit._

92 OGrady, _loc. cit._

93 See p. 112.

94 Miss Hull has discussed this subject fully in the introduction to her invaluable work, The Cuchullin Saga.

95 See the tale of Etain and Midir, in Chap. IV.

96 The name Tara is derived from an oblique case of the nominative _Teamhair_, meaning the place of the wide prospect. It is now a broad gra.s.sy hill, in Co. Meath, covered with earthworks representing the sites of the ancient royal buildings, which can all be clearly located from ancient descriptions.

97 A.H. Leahy, Heroic Romances, i. 27.

98 See p. 114.

99 I cannot agree with Mr. OGradys identification of this G.o.ddess with Dana, though the name appears to mean The Great Queen.

100 Gerald, the fourth Earl of Desmond. He disappeared, it is said, in 1398, and the legend goes that he still lives beneath the waters of Loch Gur, and may be seen riding round its banks on his white steed once every seven years. He was surnamed Gerald the Poet from the witty and ingenious verses he composed in Gaelic. Wizardry, poetry, and science were all united in one conception in the mind of the ancient Irish.

101 Popular Tales of Ireland, by D. Fitzgerald, in Revue Celtique, vol. iv.

102 The Voyage of Bran, vol. ii. p. 219.

103 In Irish, _Sionnain_.

104 Translation by R.I. Best.

105 The solar vessels found in dolmen carvings. See Chap. II. p. 71 _sqq_. Note that the Celtic spirits, though invisible, are material and have weight; not so those in Vergil and Dante.

106 De Jubainville, Irish Mythological Cycle, p. 136. Belten is the modern Irish name for the month of May, and is derived from an ancient root preserved in the Old Irish compound _epelta_, dead.

107 Irish Mythological Cycle, p. 138.

108 I follow again de Jubainvilles translation; but in connexion with this and the previous poems see also Ossianic Societys Transactions, vol. v.

109 Teltin; so named after the G.o.ddess Telta. See p. 103.

110 p.r.o.nounced Shee. It means literally the People of the [Fairy]

Mounds.

111 p.r.o.nounced Eefa.

112 This name means The Maid of the Fair Shoulder.

113 The story here summarised is given in full in the writers High Deeds of Finn (Harrap and Co.).

114 It may be mentioned that the syllable Kill, which enters into so many Irish place-names (Kilkenny, Killiney, Kilcooley, &c.), usually represents the Latin _cella_, a monastic cell, shrine, or church.

115 Cleena (_Cliodhna_) was a Danaan princess about whom a legend is told connected with the Bay of Glandore in Co. Cork. See p. 127.