It's really strange what is getting bounced back. This one was not, but does not seem to have got through, while one I re-sent after a bounce-back had in fact got through ...

Sorry to waste anybody's time with all this,
Anthony

PS. I am afraid I can produce a lot more on the Firbolgs if required, ranging from their legend as compared with the Rape of the Sabine Women to the archeological evidence and some of the references in classical Roman writers, etc. Be warned!

Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 16:06:11 +0100
From: "Anthony D. Clover"

Rowan asked:

Questions: "...a valley that must have looked the same before ever the Firbolgs came into it..." Who or what are the Firbolgs?

Golly! You ask difficult questions. For a succinct answer, you could refer to the Everyman's Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology compiled by Egerton Sykes [Dent Dutton, 1952] and follow up the six cross-references under the entry for Firbolgs and the nine for the Fomors.

However it may be more illuminating to show how complicated your question is by attaching below an extract from the great Celtic philologist and Gaelic dictionary-maker Alexander MacBain's "Celtic Mythology and Religion [Eneas Mackay, Stirling 1917 - pp 104-118]. It was originally written for The Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness in the 1880s, and was already somewhat out of date by 1917. But it gives the gist of the question and a summary of what is known from the sources, even if some of its anthropological and ethnological speculations were already overtaken by Sir James George Frazer's "Golden Bough" and would not be expressed in nearly the same way today. It is also interesting as a piece of Scottish Victoriana.

Anthony

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THE GAELIC GODS IN HISTORY

Material for reconstructing the Olympus of the Gaels is not at all so scanty as we have found it to be in the case of the Welsh. There is, it is true, no general description of the Irish Olympus, but references to particular deities are not uncommon. The earliest reference to any Irish gods occurs in one of the oldest monuments we possess of the Gaelic language; a manuscript of the St. Gall Monastery contains incantations to the powers Diancecht and Goibniu. This manuscript Zeuss sets down as of the eighth century, and it is, therefore , eleven hundred years old. Cormac's glossary, originally composed in the ninth century, mentions as deities Art, Ana, Buanann, Brigit, Neit, and Manannan. Keating quotes from the Book of Invasions a poem that makes the Dagda "king of heaven," and he further enumerates Badb, Macha, and Morrighan as the three goddesses of the Tuatha-de-Danann. The Tuatha-de-Danann themselves appear often in the tales as the fairy host, the Side that dwell in the Land of Promise ; they interfere in the affairs of mortals long after they are represented as having been expelled from Ireland, thus, if not actually mentioned as having been the pagan gods of the Gael, yet, despite the rampant Euhemerism of Irish tales and histories, implicitly considered as such. And again, by adopting the same method as in the case of the Welsh myths, we shall make the Irish myths and histories, with their imposing array of invasions and genealogies, deliver up the deities they have consigned to the ranks of kings and heroes.

We must, however, first briefly indicate the leading points of early Irish history, as set down in the sober pages of their own annalists. Forty days before the flood the Lady Caesair, granddaughter of Noah, with fifty girls and three men, came to Ireland. This is reckoned as the first "invasion" or "taking" of Ireland. Of course she and her company all perished when the flood came - all, with one doubtful exception. For some legends, with more patriotism than piety, represent Fionntan, the husband of Caesair, as actually surviving the flood. The way in which he accomplished this feat is unlike that of the ancestor of the Macleans, who weathered the flood in an ark of his own. Fionntan, when the flood began, was cast into a deep sleep, which continued for a year, and when lie woke lie found himself in his own house at Dun-Tulcha, in Kerry somewhere (for O'Curry has not been able exactly to localise this important event). He lived here contemporaneously with the various dynasties that ruled in Ireland down to the time of Dermot in the sixth century of our era. He then appears for the last time, "with eighteen companies of his descendants," in order to settle a boundary dispute, since he was the oldest man in the world, and must know all the facts. This story is not believed in by the more pious of the historians, for it too flagrantly contradicts the Scriptures. It, therefore, falls tinder O'Curry's category of "wild stories"; these are stories which contain some historic truth, but are so overloaded with the fictions of the imagination as to be nearly valueless. The Irish historians have as much horror of a blank in their history, as nature was once supposed to have of a vacuum. The Lady Caesair fills the blank before the flood; Partholan and his colony fill the first blank after the flood. He came from Migdonia, the middle of Greece, "twenty-two years before the birth of Abraham," and was the ninth in descent from Noah, all the intermediate names being duly given. He was not in the island ten years when the Fomorians, or sea-rovers, disturbed him. These Fomorians were a constant source of trouble to all succeeding colonists, and sometimes they actually became masters of the country. Some three hundred years after their arrival, the colony of Partholan was cut off by a plague. Plagues, and eruptions of lakes and springs, fill up the gaps in the annals, when genealogies and battles are not forthcoming. For thirty years after the destruction of Partholan's colony, Ireland was waste. Then came Nemed and his sons, with their company, from "Scythia," in the year before Christ 2350. They were not long in the Island when the Fomorians again appeared, and began to harass the Nemedians. Both parties were extremely skilled in Druidism, and they opposed each other in a fierce contest of spells as well as blows. The Fomorians were finally routed. Nemed was the 12th in descent from Noah. He had four sons - Starn, Jarbonnel, Fergus, and Aininn. Some two hundred and sixteen years after coming to Ireland, the Nemedians were overthrown by the Fomorians and the plague together, and only thirty escaped under the leadership of the three cousins, grandsons of Nemed, Simeon Breac, son of Starn; Beothach, son of Jarbonnel; and Britan Mael, son of Fergus. Simeon Breac and his party went to Greece, and after eleven generations returned as the Firbolgs. Beothach, with his clan, went to the northern parts of Europe, where they made themselves perfect in the arts of Divination, Druidism, and Philosophy, and returned eleven generations later as the Tuatha-de-Danann. Britan Mael, with his family, went to Mona, and from there poured their descendants into the island, which is now called Britain, after their leader, Britan Mael. The Firbolgs, the descendants of Starn, son of Nemed, being oppressed in Greece, much as the Israelites were in Egypt, returned to Ireland, and took possession of it. "They were called the FirboIgs," we are told, "from the bags of leather they used to have in Greece for carrying soil to put on the bare rocks, that they might make flowery plains under blossom of them." The Firbolgs held Ireland for thirty-six years, and then they were invaded by their 12th cousins, the Tuatha-de-Danann, the descendants of Jarbonnel, son of Nemed. Next to the Milesian colony yet to come, the Tuatha-de-Danann are the most important by far of the colonists, for in them we shall by-and-bye discover the Irish gods.

What the annalists tell of them is briefly this. They came from the north of Europe, bringing with them "four precious jewels; - the first was the Lia Fail, the Stone of Virtue or Fate, for wherever it was, there a person of the race of Scots must reign; the sword of Luga Lamfada; the spear of the same; and the cauldron of the Dagda, from which "a company never went away unsatisfied." The Tuatha landed in Ireland on the first of May, either 1900 or 1500 years before Christ, for the chronologies differ by only a few hundred years. They burned their ships as a sign of " no retreat," and for three days concealed themselves in a mist of sorcery. They then demanded the Firbolgs to yield, which, however, they would not do, and the great battle of Moytura South was fought. The Firbolgs were routed with immense slaughter. Nuada, leader of the Tuatha-Dé in the battle, lost his hand in the fight, but Credne Cerd, the artificer, made a silver one for him, and Diancecht, the physician, fitted it on, while Miach, his son, infused feeling and motion into every joint and vein of it. For thirty years the Tuatha held undisputed possession of Erin, but the Fomorians, who were continually hovering about the coast, now made a determined effort to conquer them. The battle of Moytura North was fought between them. In it Nuada of the Silver Hand fell, and so did Balor of the Evil Eye, leader of the Fomorians. He was slain by his grandson Luga of the Long Arms, who was practically leader of the Tuatha, and who succeeded to the kingship on the death of Nuada. After a reign of forty years Luga died, and was succeeded by the Dagda Mor, the central figure of the Tuatha-de-Danann, and in the pages of our Euhemerist annalists, an inscrutable and misty personage. O'Curry ventures even to call him a demigod. The Dagda was the twenty-fourth in descent from Noah; let it be observed that Nemid was the twelfth in descent. The Firbolg chiefs also were in the twenty-fourth generation from Noah. Among the leading personages of the Tuatha were Manannan, the son of Alloid or Lir; Ogma, son of Elathan, and brother of the Dagda, surnamed " Surface"; Goibniu, the smith; Luchtine, the carpenter; Danann, mother of their gods; Brigit, the poetess; Badb, Macha, and Morrigan, "their three goddesses," says Keating. The Tuatha held Erin for nigh two hundred years, but when MacCuill, MacCecht, and MacGreine who were so called "because Coll, Cecht, and Grian, the hazel, the plough, and the sun, were gods of worship to them," were ruling over Ireland with their respective queens Banba, Fodla, and Eire (three names of Ireland), the last colony of all appeared on the southern coast. These were the Milesians or Gaels from Spain and the East. They were in no respect related to the previous races, except that they were equally with them descended from Noah, Golam Miled, after whom they were called Milesians, being the twenty-fourth from Noah in direct descent. They were also called Gaels or Gaidels, from an ancestor Gadelus, seventh in descent from Noah, and son of Scota, daughter of Pharaoh. The family lived for the most part in Egypt, but Golam Miled, who was also married to a second Scota, daughter of Pharaoh, settled in Spain. The sons of Miled to avenge a relative's murder, resolved to invade Erin. Under the leadership of Heber, Heremon, and Amergin, and accompanied by Scota, a vast army in many ships invaded Ireland. No resistance was offered at first. The Milesians arrived at Tara, and there met the three kings and queens of the Tuatha-de-Danann. The latter complained of being taken by surprise, and asked the Milesians to embark again on board their ships and allow them to have a chance of opposing their landing. The Milesians assented, entered their ships, and retired for "nine waves" on the sea. On facing about again no Ireland was to be seen The Tuatha by their sorcery had made the island as small as a pig's back, and the Milesians could therefore not see it. In addition to this they raised a violent storm on the sea, with clouds and darkness that could be felt. Many Milesian ships were lost, and the danger was brought to an end only when Amergin, who was also a Druid, pronounced a Druidic prayer, or oration, evidently addressed to the Tuatha Dé and the storm ceased. They then landed peaceably but they did not get the island without a few battles of a very hazy sort indeed. It probably at first was intended to be shown that the Tuatha allowed them to land, and themselves retired to the Land of Promise - the country of the Side where they still took an interest in mortal affairs, and often afterwards appeared in Irish history and tales. The Milesians, or Gadelians or Gaels, are a purely mortal race ; they were, in fact, the dominant race of Ireland in historic times. Their history and full genealogies from some thirteen hundred years before Christ till the introduction of Christianity, are gravely told in the Annals of the Four Masters and Keating's Ireland; every king has his pedigree given, and many are the details that are recorded of their doings in war and in peace, in society, and in the chase, in law, and in the care and seizure of land and of cattle. Mythic persons constantly flit across the page; the demigods become mere mortal chiefs, and the "last reflections" of the sun-god appear in the features of Cuchulainn and Finn.

There are many interpretations put upon the history that we have just summarily given. Naturally enough, ethnological theories form the greater part of such explanations. The leading invasions of the FirboIgs, Fomorians, Tuatha-de-Danann and Milesians, are made use of to refute or support some favourite theory about the various races that go to compose the Irish nation. Two hundred years ago an Irish genealogist, of the name of Dubaltach MacFirbisigh, advanced the theory, doubtless supported by tradition, that "every one who is white-skinned, brown-haired, bountiful in the bestowal on the bards of jewels, wealth, and rings, not afraid of battle or combat, is of the Clanna-Miled (the Milesians); every one who is fair-haired, big, vindictive, skilled in music, druidry, and magic, all these are of the Tuatha-de-Danann; while the black-haired, loud-tongued, mischievous, tale-bearing, inhospitable churls, the disturbers of assemblies, who love not music and entertainment, these are of the Feru-bolg and the other conquered peoples." Skene, in modern times, gives this theory of MacFirbisigh in our modern terms: the Firbolgs belong to the Iberian or Neolithic and pre-Celtic tribes ; the Celts themselves are divided into Gaels and Britons; the Gaelic branch is again subdivided into (1) a fair-skinned, large-limbed, and red-haired race-the Picts of Caledonia and the Tuatha-de-Danann of Ireland; and (2) a fair-skinned, brown-haired race, "of a less Germanic type," represented in Ireland by the Milesians, and in Scotland by the band of invading Scots. We have already presented the best modern scientific views on the ethnology of these islands ; there would appear to have been three races - (1) A primitive, small, dark, long-headed race, of the Basque type in language and Iberian in physique; (2) a fair, tall, rough-featured, round-headed, and rough-limbed race, also pre-Celtic, which we called the Finnish; and (3) the Celts, fair, straight-featured, long-headed and tall, and belonging to the Aryan family. We might equate the Firbolgs with the dark Iberian race ; the Tuatha-de-Danann with the Finnish race; and the Milesians with the Celts. The legendary and traditional account can easily be fitted into the present scientific view of the subject. But, after all, the truth of such a theory must be gravely doubted; even its agreement with proper scientific methods in such case must be questioned. We may grant that the strong contrast between a small dark race and a tall fair race might give rise to a myth like that of the FirboIgs and Tuatha-de-Dananns. But in Wales, where the contrast is even stronger, no such myth exists. Again the Milesians were really fair-haired and not brown-haired; the heroes of Ulster are all fair or yellow-haired, and so are the Feni. It is best, therefore, to adopt a purely mythological explanation of the matter. Despite its pseudo-historical character, the whole history of the invasions of the Firbolg, De-Dananns, and Fomorians appears to be a Gaelic counterpart of what we see in Greek mythology, the war of the rough and untamed powers of earth, sea, and fire, against the orderly cosmos of the Olympians; the war, in short, of the giants and Titans against Zeus and his brothers. The Firbolgs may be, therefore, looked upon as the earth-powers; too much stress need not be laid on the fact that they and their brethren, the Fir-Domnans, were wont to dig the soil, make pits, and carry earth in bags to make flowery plains of bare rocks; but it should be noticed that they always meet the Tuatha-de-Danann as natives of the soil repelling invaders. The gods of the soil often belong to a pre-Aryan people, while the greater gods, the Olympians and the Tuatha-de-Danann, are intrusive, the divinities of the newcomers into the land, the patrons of warriors and sea-faring men. Behind these last there often stand deities of older birth, those who had been worshipped in ancient days by the simple and settled folk of the land. Such were Pan or Hermes of Arcadia, Dionysus of Thrace, and Demeter and Dione. The FirboIgs may, therefore, be looked on as either the homely gods of preceding tribes of the non-Aryan races, or as answering to the giants and Titans of kindred Aryan races. "The King of the Feru-Bolg," says Mr. Fitzgerald, "Eothaile - whom we shall find reason to suspect to be a fire-giant - fled from the field when the day was lost, 'in search of water to allay his burning thirst,' and by the water of the sea he fell on Traigh-Eothaile, 'Eothaile's Strand,' in Sligo. His great cairn, still standing, on this strand was one of the wonders of Ireland, and though not apparently elevated, the water could never cover it. If we turn to the Fomorians, we shall find quite as easy an explanation. The meaning of the word is " Sea-rover"; it has always been derived from the words "fo," under, and "muir," sea, and the meaning usually attached to the combination has been " those that rove on the sea." The Fomorians are, therefore, sea-powers: the rough, chaotic power of the Atlantic Ocean. They meet the Tuatha-de-Dannan in the extreme West of Ireland, on the last day of summer, that is, November eve: the fierce ocean powers meet the orderly heaven and air gods on the Atlantic borders when winter is coming on, and the latter do not allow the former to overwhelm the country. Balor of the Evil Eye, whose glance can turn his opponents into stone, and who, in some forms of the legend, is represented as having only one eye, is very suggestive of Polyphemus, the giant son of the Grecian ocean god. To this we may compare the Gaelic tale of the Muireartach, where the Atlantic Sea is represented as a " toothy carlin," with an eye in the middle of her forehead. The Tuatha-de-Dananns will, therefore, be simply the gods that beneficially direct the powers of sky, air, sea, and earth ; they will correspond exactly to Zeus, Poseidon, Pluto, and the rest of the Grecian god-world, who benignly rule over the heavens, the sea, and the shades. The Milesians will accordingly be merely the main body of the Gaelic people, whose gods the Tuatha-deDanann are. Why there is no more open acknowledgment of the Tuatha-de-Danann as the pagan gods of the Gael may easily be accounted for. The accounts we have are long posterior to the introduction of Christianity; and it was a principle of the early Christian Church to assimilate to itself, following the true Roman fashion, all native religions. The native gods were made saints (especially the female divinities, such as Brigit), fairies, demons, and kings. Christianity was about five hundred years established before we have any native record of events ; the further back we go the nearer do the Tuatha-Dé come to be gods. Even in the 8th century an Irish monk could still invoke Goibniu and Diancecht, the Tuatha gods answering to Vulcan and Aesculapius, for relief from, and protection against, pain.

GODS OF THE GAELS.

Whatever interpretation we give to the Feru-bolg and the Fomorians, there can be little question as to the fact that the Tuatha-De-Danann are the Gaelic gods. The Irish historians, as we saw, represent them as kings with subjects, but even they find it difficult to hide the fact that some of these kings and queens afterwards appear on the scene of history in a super-natural fashion. The myths and tales, however, make no scruple to tell us that the Tuatha-De-Danann still live in Fairyland, and often take part in human affairs. In a very ancient tract which records a dialogue between St. Patrick and Caoilte Mac Ronain, they are spoken of as "sprites or fairies, with corporeal and material forms, but imbued with immortality." Their skill in magic, shown in their manipulation of storms, clouds, and darkness. is insisted on in all the myths, and is a source of trouble to the historians and annalists, who regard them as mere mortals. "They were called gods," says Keating, "from the wonderfulness of their deeds of sorcery." To them is first applied the term Side, which in modern Gaelic means "fairy," but which in the case of the Tuatha-De-Danann has a much wider signification, for it implies a sort of god-like existence in the "Land of Promise." The Book of Armagh calls the Side "deos terrenos," earthly gods, whom, we are told in Fiacc's hymn, when Patrick came, the peoples adored -"tuatha adortais Side" Sid was a term applied to the green knolls where some of these deified mortals were supposed to dwell: the word appears in the moden Galic "sith" and "sithean", a mound or rather a fairy mound. The Tuatha-De-Danann were also called "Aes Side," "aes" being here used in the sense of "race" and not of "age." We may remark that the Norse gods were also known as the Aes or Aesir, one of the many remarkable coincidences in words and in actions between the Irish gods and the deities of Asgard .....