The Mythological Cycle

1
The Mythological Cycle

• Today we will continue out investigation into the
  early Irish deities focusing today on
• The Lebor Gabala Érenn
• And next time The Wooing of Etain.

2
Lebor Gabala The Book of Invasions

• Compiled in the 12th century.
• The five volumes of the LG appear to have grown
  over several centuries. Perhaps started c 9th
  century.
• The compilers created a history of early Ireland
  based on a succession of different invasions of
  the island.

3
The Invasions

• Cesair
• Partolon
• Nemedians
• Fir Bolg (Belgae?)-dispersed to the west and
  isles.
• Tuatha Dé Danann
• The Milesians (The Sons of Mil, the Gaels)

4
The two Battles of Moytura

• The first battle concerns the Fir Bolg and the
  Tuatha Dé Danann and how the former were defeated
  and dispersed in the west of Ireland and in the
  isles.
• The Second Battle is of much greater importance
  in Irish Mythology and brings in all the Tutha Dé
  Danann and the god Lug for the first time.

5
Lebor Gabala The Book of Invasions

• The narratives are also influenced by Biblical
  learning about the Old Testament.
• The narrative as a whole sets the scene for the
  first of the major cycles of Irish writing The
  Mythological Cycle.
• The key-text is Cath Maige Tuired (The Battle of
  Mag Tuired/Moytura.

6
Lebor Gabala The Book of Invasions

• A detailed outline of the various invasions as
  well as the two Battles of Moytura in Myths and
  Legends of the Celts (James MacKillop) pp127-149.
• All of the members of the Tuatha Dé Danann play a
  role in the narratives about these two
  mythological battles.

7
Lebor Gabala The Book of Invasions

• In particular we hear about Lug Lámfhota, a major
  deitiy of the Irish, and of the British and
  European Celts of the Iron-Age (pre-Roman).

8
Lug Lámfhota

• In Old Irish Lug
• Light
• Brightness
• Lámfhota
• Long-armed
• Long-handed

9
Lug Lámfota

• Chief of the Tuatha Dé Danann
• Hero of the Mythological Cycle
• One of the three great heroes in Irish tradition
  along with Fionn mac Cumhaill and Cú Chulainn
• The supernatural father of Cú Chulainn (Ulster
  Cycle)

10
Lug Lámfota

• Lámfhota (long-armed) because he has the ability
  to hurl a weapon or use a sling over long
  distances
• Sometimes caled Samildánach meaning that he
  possesses arts, crafts and trades
• Much of his story is told in the Cath Maige
  Tuired (The Second Battle of Mag Tuired (Moytura).

11
Lug Lámfhota

• His Welsh (ie Celtic British) counterpart is Lleu
  Llaw Gyffes meaning light of the sure/steady hand
• Lug shares a divine origin with Fionn and Cú
  Chulainn, and is sometimes seen as the alter-ego
  of CC.
• Gaulish counterpart is Mercury described, like
  Lug, as being a master of all the arts

12
Lug Lámfhota

• Mercury also known as Lugos/Lugus
• In place name lore (dindsheanchas), lugos/Lugus
  gives his name to Leiden, Lyon, Liegnitz
• The Roman Emperor Augustus inaugurated a festival
  on the first of August in Lyon, a forerunner of
  the Irish August festival, Lughnasa

13
Lug Lámfhota

• Similar in being long-armed to the Indian god,
  Savitar, of the wide hand.
• Linked with the Indian Varuna and the Norse Odin
  for their use of magic

14
Lug Lámfhota

• Conception Birth
• His grandfather, Balor of the Formorians,
• was told he would be killed by his grandson
• so he tried to keep his daughter,Eithne,away
• from men.
• Cian, the son of Dian Cécht, (a leading
• figure of the TDD, the healing god) seduces
• Eithne and she conceives triplets.

15
Lug Lámfhota

• Conception Birth
• Two of the triplets were either drowned or
• turned into seals, leaving Lug as the only
• surviving baby
• Fostered by the sea-god Manannán mac Lir
• (son of the sea)

16
Lug Lámfhota

• Fosterage
• Training of sons and daughters by a
• powerful patron that is not a family member.
• This practice survived in Gaelic Scotland
• until the 18th century. Children were fostered
• at the age of 7 until the age of 14 for girls
• and 17 for boys

17
Lugh

• In a famous scene from Irish mythology, Lugh
  arrives at the gates of Tara with a retinue of
  fellow warriors.
• In a typical scene, they are questioned by the
  doorkeepers (Camel and Gamel).
• Lug is required to say who he is and who his kin
  are (in Celtic fashion).

18
Cath Maige Tuired

• He recites his lineage (presumably revealing he
  is Balors grandson!) and who his fosterers are.
  He asks if the king (Nuadu) needs a
  carpenter/smith/champion/harpist/warrior/poet/hist
  orian/sorcerer/physician/cupbearer/brazier.
• In each case he is given the answer that the king
  already has one in his court.

19
Cath Maige Tuired Lug

• Lugs final challenge is to ask whether the king
  has someone who possesses all these abilities
  (arts).
• The doorkeeper announces at one samindánach
  (master of all arts) is at the door, and has come
  to help Nuadus people. (Caesar omnium
  inventorem artium) Welsh tradition Lleu is of
  the skillful hand).
• To prove his point Lug, Lug defeats all comers at
  the Celtic chess game known as fidchell, plays a
  magical harp..

20
Lug Lámfhota

• Described as youthful, handsome and athletic
• To gain admittance to Tara, Lug describes himself
  as a builder, smith, champion, harper, warrior,
  poet, historian magician, physician, cup-bearer,
  craftsman in metal
• The King, Nuadu, therefore gives his throne to Lug

21
Lug Lámfhota

• Lug is credited with inventing fidchell,
• (something like chess), considered to be the
• board game of Kings.
• He is also believed to have brought horse
• racing to Ireland.
• His constant companion is his lapdog, Failinis
  who
• shines like the sun on a summer day and before
• whom every wild beast falls to the earth powerless

22
Lug Lámfhota

• Christianization
• Early Celtic Christians associated Lug with
• the archangel, Michael, for his victory over
• the Formorians.
• The archangel, Michael, was the captain of
• the heavenly army that defeated Lucifer.

23
The Two Battles of Maige Tuired

• Attributed to a flat expanse of land near the
  west shore of Lough Arrow in County Sligo
• A second expanse of flat land, still called the
  Plain of Moytura lies in southern County Mayo
• If the place name is translated as the Plain of
  Pillars then archaeological evidence favours the
  SLigo site where an upright stone column once
  stood

24
The Two Battles of Maige Tuired

• The First battle of Maige Tuired look place at
  Beltaine (May 1st, first day of summer)
• The Second took place at Samhain (November 1st,
  first day of Celtic year)
• Text found in the Lebor Gabála (12th century text)

25
The First Battle of Maige Tuired

• The First Battle of Maige Tuired is the invasion
  of Ireland by the Tuatha Dé Danann when they
  defeated the Fir Bolg
• Nuadu, King of the TDD, loses his arm in the
  battle. The healing god, Dian Cécht, makes him a
  new arm of silver
• With only one arm, Nuadu is blemished, and no
  longer fit to be king, so the kingship goes to
  Bres

26
Cath Maige Tuired

• The (Second) Battle of Moytura

27
The Second Battle of Maige Tuired

• The second battle is between the now dominant TDD
  and the resurgent Fomorians
• The two principal combatants are Lug of the TDD
  and Balor of the Fomorians

28
The Second Battle of Maige Tuired

• King Bres father, although raised with the TDD,
  was a Fomorian
• Bres is oppressive and lets the country fall
  under the sway of the Fomorians
• Bres is ungenerous and treats other gods (like
  the Dagda) poorly
• At the request of the TDD leaders, Bres gives up
  his kingship but musters a Fomorian army to
  support him

29
The Second Battle of Maige Tuired

• Nuadu is reinstated as King
• Then Lug arrives at the gates of Tara possessing
  his many arts
• Nuadu relinquishes his throne so that Lug can
  lead the TDD in battle
• Under Lugs direction, the craftsmen at Tara
  fashion wondrous weapons and sorcerers practise
  magic to use in battle

30
The Second Battle of Maige Tuired

• All of the Tuatha De Danann are conscripted into
  Lugs army to withstand the Fomorians.
• The craftsmen Goibniu, Dian Cécht, Luchta, Ogma,
  Credne, as well as
• The Morrigan, Cairpre (the satirist), druids and
• The Dagda (he is wounded by Caitlin, wife of
  Balor).
• Lug fights as a sorcerer

31
The Second Battle of Maige Tuired

• When the battle is enjoined, the TDD have an
  advantage with Dian Cécht (the healing god) who
  raises the war dead to life
• Lug also gives the TDD an advantage by using his
  powers of magic and sorcery

32
The Second Battle of Maige Tuired

• Balor, the leader of the Fomorians is a
  formidable enemy
• His baleful gaze can destroy an army
• Sometimes known as Balor of the Baleful Eye
• His eyelid is so mighty that it takes four men to
  lift it (note comparison with Ysbaddaden in
  Culhwch Olwen)

33
The Second Battle of Maige Tuired

• Lug puts a sling-shot stone through Balors eye
  which crashes through his head and exits at the
  back of his skull, killing 27 Fomorians in the
  process
• The Fomorians are expelled from Ireland forever

34
The Second Battle of Maige Tuired

• Bres is captured and tries to win favour by
  promising the TDD cattle will always have milk
  and that they will always have good harvests
• The TDD reject Bres offer but spare his life for
  giving good advice on the right times to plough,
  sow and reap

35
The Second Battle of Maige Tuired

• The Mórrígan announces the end of the battle, and
• Badb, the war goddess makes a prophecy of the end
  of the world

36
The significance of the battle

• Georges Dumézil and the Rees brothers (Alwyn and
  Brinley).
• A primeval battle between the gods and their
  adversaries occurs in other mythologies, and
  there are striking similarities between the
  stories told of these conflicts by the ancient
  Indians, Scandinavians and Greeks, and other
  peoples whose languages are derived from
  Indo-European.

37
The significance of the battle

• In northern Indian tradition the battle is fought
  between two Indian groups the Devas (the gods)
  and the Asuras. It has been stated that this is
  the basic theme of Vedic tradition.
• The Asuras were malevolent beings (cf the
  Fomorians). In that same tradition both the
  Asuras and the Devas are kinsmen (note the mixed
  background of both Lug and Bres).

38
The significance of the battle

• In Scandinavian tradition (mainly recorded in
  medieval Iceland), the disstinction is made
  between two races of deities the Vanir and the
  Aesir who also engage in a mythic battle. (the
  Edda of Snorri Sturluson).

39
The significance of the battle

• An early theory about the significance of the
  battle emphasized the episode where Lug kills
  Balor and saw in this the displacement of an
  older deity by a younger one in some undatable
  period in pre-Christian Ireland.

40
The significance of the battle

• Certainly, the Second Battle seems to have been
  interpolated (inserted) into the longer
  narratives about the various conquests of
  Irleland, but that it was a text which was of
  enormous importance in early medieval Irish
  culture (and perhaps earlier).

41
The Fomorians (Fomhoire)

• The Fomorians appear prominently in the action of
  the Second Battle of Moytura.
• They are portrayed as malevolent beings,
  monstrous and fearsome.
• Each are described as having one eye, one arm and
  one leg, although later in the BII material they
  seem more completely anthropomorphic.

42
The Fomorians (Fomhoiri)

• The Fomorians do not appear as settlers of
  Ireland (in the context of the LG), but rather
  make raids on the mainland from the sea and their
  fortress on Tory Island (off Co Donegal, NW
  Ireland).

43
The Fomorians (Fomhoiri)

• Scolars today tend to see the Fomorians as
  euhemerized sea-deities, pre-Christian in
  origin but which came to be seen later as demonic
  humans.
• Etymologically the name means under the sea.
• Individual Fomorians are particularly loathsome,
  especially Balor of the Baleful Eye.
• His gaze is lethal he never opens his one eye
  except on the battle-field, where four men are
  needed to lift his eyelid.
• Any individual or army looking at the eye are
  made powerless.

44
Cath Maige Tuired

• The story of the second battle of Moytirra can be
  reduced to two basic levels of plot
• The struggle between two supernatural races on
  the one hand (the Tuatha De Danann and the
  Fomorians)
• The killing of a tyrant by his prophesied
  grandson on the other. (This is the myth of Lugh).

45
The arrival of the Sons of Mil

• This was the last invasion in the Lebor Gabala.
  The LG suggests that they arrived in Ireland via
  Spain. They defeat the Tuatha Dé Danann but
  neither the LB nor the Second Battle of Moytura
  text explain what happened to them.
• For this we have to turn to the text of Mesca
  Ulad (The Intoxication of the Ulstermen) p190.
  (Early Irish Myths and Sagas).

46
Next Week

• Text Early Irish Myths and Sagas
• September 29
• The Wooing of Etain, P. 37-59
• October 1
• The Dream of Oengus, P. 107-112
• The Labour Pains of the Ulaid and The Twins of
• Macha, P. 127-129