This was the first year of the reign of Eochaidh, son of Erc.
The tenth year of the reign of Eochaidh, son of Erc; and this was the last year of his reign, for the Tuatha-De-Dananns[67]
Tuatha Dé Danann: The principle otherworld race in Irish literary myth. Their designation means 'the People of the Goddess Danu'. Danu was an ancient Celtic land-goddess, but it is not clear why her name in particular was chosen to refer to the otherworld race, who were often referred to in a shorter form as Tuatha Dé.
Groups of Celtic people, in their westward expansion, were apparently reaching Ireland as early the 6th century BC, and these influxes of Celts continued until the early centuries AD. These groups must have brought with them whatever mythical and religious ideas which they had inherited in the Celtic areas of Europe. When they reached Ireland, they encountered many archaeological remains of much earlier settlements. Particularly noticeable were the passage-graves and tumuli of north Leinster and east Ulster, constructed by a specially advanced people in the 3rd millennium BC; but there were also cairns, dolmens, megaliths, and indeed pliable artifacts, surviving throughout the country, having been left behind by other ancient inhabitants. The incoming Celts must have been quite impressed by such remains and - in a conventional cultural reaction - tended to associate these non-natural aspects of the environment with mystical otherworld beings of old. The pantheon of such beings known to the Celts were their own deities, and in this way archaeological remains came to be associated with the characters and activities of Celtic mythology. Specific deities were said to have dwelt in noteworthy archaeological sites and to inhabit them still as spiritual beings, while the myth-patterns of Celtic lore were adapted to a geographical plane which was based on the occurrence of such sites in the landscape. Thus arose the Irish complex of imagery and story associated with the Tuath Dé Danann.
The myth which gave a unified basis to the lore of the Tuatha Dé was that of a great battle. This myth, of Indo-European derivation, told of a primordial conflict between a divine race (which in Irish became known as the Tuatha Dé) and a demonic race ( the Fomhóire). It is likely that the myth was first introduced by a group of new Celtic immigrants from Britain in the 3rd or 2nd century BC, and, once situated on Irish soil, the plot of the myth allowed for various elements of the Celtic otherworld to be synchronised and for a logical Irish theogony to be constructed. This was further developed with the passing of time, the great battle being located at Moytirra in Co Sligo and a separate myth concerning Lugh being incorporated into it. Some other surviving elements of ancient lore were not overtly fitted into the Moytirra context, but were relayed as separate fragments of narrative under the general umbrella of the Tuatha Dé theme.
When the early mediaeval writers set themselves the task of constructing a pseudo-history of Ireland, they enthusiastically put this mythological material to use. These writers being Christians, probably needed monks, this part of their work had particular appeal for them, for the 'historicising' of the Tuatha Dé removed the remnants of the pre-Christian religious belief from their general ambit. The culmination of the process was the long description of the Tuatha Dé given in the Lebor Gagála, which was assembled and expanded from the 8th century to the 12th. This book purported to tell the ancient history of Ireland, and its account became the standard source for later references to the Tuatha Dé. The gods and goddesses having been mythic patrons of the arts and skills, the Lebor Gabála was following good precedence when it portrayed the Tuatha Dé as having among them many magical craftsmen. The division of the race into nobles and peasants, however, was probably not so much a mythic theme as a reflection of mediaeval Gaelic society. The Lebor Gabála tells us that only the nobles had these magical abilities, and elaborates by stating that 'gods were their men of art, non-gods their husbandmen'.
In typical mediaeval style, the Tuatha Dé are described as having been descendants of Neimheadh and as having sojourned in the northern parts of the world learning wizardry. The character who led them into Ireland, and their first king in the country, is stated to have been Nuadhu, and he gained control of the whole country when the Tuatha Dé defeated the Fir Bolg at the so-called 'first' battle of Moytirra. Due to the loss of his arm in that battle, however, he was replaced for seven years by Breas, whose father was of the Fomhóire. When an arm made from silver was put on him, Nuadhu was restored to the kingship but was slain at the 'second' battle of Moytirra. He had given the command of his army to the newcomer Lugh in that battle, and now Lugh became king and reigned for forty years. After his death, the Daghdha became king and reigned for eighty years. Then Dealbhaeth reigned for ten years, and he in was turn succeeded by his son Fiacha. Finally three grandsons of the Daghdha - called Mac Cuill, Mac Céacht, and Mac Gréine - divided Ireland between them and married the three eponymous goddesses of the country called Banba, Fódla, and Éire. They ruled for twenty-nine years until the coming of the sons of Míl, who took the kingship for the Gaelic people.
The trio of Mac Cuill, Mac Céacht, and Mac Gréine reflect the tendency in early Irish myth to triplicate deities. This finds most striking expression in 'the three gods of Danu', called Trí Dé Danann, which designation parallels the name of the supernatural race itself. Indeed the Tuatha Dé are called 'fir Trí nDéa' (i.e. 'men of the Three Gods') in the earliest surviving text of the Moytirra battle, where we are told that Lugh went to the three gods of Danu to provide him with weapons. It is, however, apparent that the original form of the phrase was the otherwise attested Trí Dé Dána (meaning 'three gods of art'). The Lebor Gabála states that the three were Brian, Iuchair, and Iucharba - sons of the goddess Danu - but three of the Tuatha Dé champions who played a leading part in the Moytirra battle were Goibhniu the blacksmith, Luchta the wright, and Créidhne the silversmith. These made weapons for Lugh and, although they are not expressly identified as such, it may be that they were the original 'three gods of art' who were alternately known as the three sons of Danu. Other leading characters of the Tuatha Dé mentioned in the Lebor Gabála were the physician Dian Céacht, the warrior Oghma, the poetess Brighid, and the satirist Cridhinbhéal.
An atmosphere of magic and mystery surrounds the Tuatha Dé in the Lebor Gabála. We read that they first came to Ireland in obscure clouds, landing on a mountain in the west of the country, and that they caused an eclipse of the sun which lasted for three days. They brought with them the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny) which cried out at Tara when touched by the rightful king, the great spear of Lugh which guaranteed victory to its wielder, the sword of Nuadhu from which no opponent escaped, and the cauldron of the Daghdha from which no company departed unsatisfied.
After their defeat by the Gaelic people led by the sons of Míl, the Lebor Gabhála gives no further details, but a 12th-century writer tells that an agreement was reached whereby the Tuatha Dé left the upper half of the ground to the Gaelic people and they themselves went underground to live in the ancient barrows and cairns which dot the landscape. Thus mediaeval Irish Christianity explained the age old belief which associated the deities with the prehistoric monuments, while at the same time demoting these deities to the level of the Fomhóire by claiming that their habitat was in the nether regions. Regarding the Barrows and cairns, it was claimed that the Daghdha assigned to each of their chiefs one such dwelling - hence the idea, found throughout Irish literature, that the mystical Tuatha Dé live on side by side with the human inhabitants of Ireland. Another 12th-century writer, notwithstanding a strong antipathy to the subject which caused him to call the Tuatha Dé 'devils', puts the tradition in a nutshell when he states that they 'used to fight with men in bodily form, and used to show delights and mysteries to them, and people believed that they were immortal'. This synopsises the relationship, which is the general one in the literature, between the Tuatha Dé and the Gaelic people. One early source states that, as part of the war between them, the Tuatha Dé destroyed the corn and milk of the sons of Míl, but the Daghdha made restitution once the peace agreement was arranged.
The late mediaeval literature makes the Daghdha's son, Bodhbh Dearg, king of the Tuatha Dé, and gives to the sea-deity Manannán the function of dividing the ten principal otherworld dwellings among their chiefs. It is Manannán, too, who institutes the 'féth fiadha' (the probable meaning of which was 'cloak of concealment'), an obscure magical device which enabled the Tuatha Dé, when they so wished, to become invisible to the human world. He also arranged that they would have magical swine which returned to life after being killed so that the warriors could again hunt them. The variety of locations for the otherworld which is usual in human thought is evidenced by the tradition that, notwithstanding their dwellings in cairns and barrows, the Tuatha Dé are portrayed also as living in idyllic overseas realms such as Magh Meall ('the Delightful Plain') or Eamhain Abhlach ('the region of Apples'), which is cognate with Avalon, the version of the Celtic otherworld which surfaced later in Arthurian romance.
The later writers often confused the Tuatha Dé with Fomhóire, and in post-mediaeval literature the Tuatha Dé are represented as having both salutary and demonic groups among them. They were thus suitable as powerful beings to be introduced into a varirty of literary narratives. As well as being a vestige of the idea of a divine race, however, the Tuatha Dé were also a version of the ancient and far-flung notion of quasi-human communities living beside the human one. As such they are of the same stock as the fairies of ordinary folklore, and it is clear that Irish fairy lore owes much to them in its general themes.
came to invade Ireland against the Firbolgs; and they gave battle to each other at Magh-Tuireadh,[68]
Otherwise called Magh-Tuireadh-Conga, from its proximity to Cong. The site of this battle is still pointed out in the parish of Cong, barony of Kilmaine, and county of Mayo, to the right of the road as you go from Cong to the village of the Neal. There is a detailed but legendary account of this battle in a manuscript, in the handwriting of Gilla-riabhach O'Clery, preserved in the Library of the British Museum.
in Conmaicne-Cuile-Toladh, in Connacht, so that the King Eochaidh, son of Erc, was killed[69]
Eochaidh, son of Erc, is given as the last of the nine Firbolgic kings in the Annals of Clonmacnois as translated by Mageoghegan; and in all the copies of the Leabhar-Gabhala, and by Keating and O'Flaherty. According to the Leabhar-Gabhala, Eochaidh fled from this battle, and was pursued and overtaken on the strand of Traigh-Eothaile, near Ballysadare, in the present county of Sligo, where he was slain, as mentioned in the text. The carn in which he was interred is described as one of the wonders of Ireland in the Mirabilia Hiberniae, in the Book of Ballymote; and also by O'Flaherty, in Ogygia. This carn still exists, and although not high above the level of the strand, it is believed that the tide can never cover it.
by the three sons of names. The Firbolgs were vanquished and slaughtered[70]
According to the Annals of Clonmacnois, as translated by Connell Mageoghegan, the Firbolgs were "overthrown" in this battle, and "one hundred thousand of them slaine, with their king, Eochy Mac Eircke, which was the greatest slaughter that was ever heard of in Ireland at one meeting."
From the monuments of this battle still remaining, it is quite evident that great numbers were slain; but certainly not so many as mentioned in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, which was probably taken from some romantic account of the battle, like that above referred to.
in this battle. Moreover, the hand[71]
It is stated in the Battle of Magh-Tuireadh, and various other accounts of the Tuatha-De-Dananns, that Credne Cerd made a silver hand for this Nuadhat, and that Diancecht, the Aesculapius of the Irish, fitted it upon him, from which he was ever after known by the name of Nuadhat-Airgetlamh, i.e. Nuadhat of the Silver Hand. It is stated in Leabhar-Gabhala of the O'Clerys that Diancecht and Credne formed the hand with motion in every finger and joint, and that Miach, the son of Diancecht, to excel his father, took off this hand, and infused feeling and motion into every joint and vein of it, as if it were a natural hand. See O'Flaherty's Ogygia. In Cormac's Glossary the name of Diancecht is explained .i. dia na h-íce, "the God of curing."
of Nuadhat,[72]
Nuadhu Mythical king of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The meaning of the name (earlier, Nuadu) is unclear, but the most likely interpretation would be 'catcher'. A cognate in British Celtic was the name of the deity Nodons, to whom a temple was dedicated at Lydney in Gloucestershire. Several representations of dogs were found at the temple, which factor suggests that he was envisaged as a hunter, but in particular there was the figure of a man in the act of hooking a fish.
In early Irish tradition Nuadhu was associated with the Boyne, being married to the eponymous goddess of the river, Bóinn. He was displaced through a trick from his residence at Brugh na Bóinne (the Newgrange tumulus) by the Mac Óg (i.e. Aonghus), and went to live at the nearby rath called Sídh Chleitigh. Since the Mac Óg is probably cognate with the British Celtic deity Maponos, and since both Nodons and Maponos were popular in northern England, it may well be that lore of the two deities reached Ireland at the same time. In the first battle of Moytirra Nuadhu is described as the king of the Tuatha Dé who led them into Ireland, and it is therefore apparent that the myth - represented by that battle -of a struggle between the divine and the demonic races was part of this cult.
The tradition concerning this battle has Nuadhu losing an arm and having to resign the kingship because of the blemish. The physician Dian Céacht magically made a silver arm for him, as good and manageable as any other arm, and as a result he was restored to the kingship. The import of this arm-motif is difficult to decipher, but it must reflect ancient lore. Similarly ancient must be the idea that the well at the source of the Boyne belonged to him. This well was said to have been in the Sídh (otherworld dwelling) of Nechtan. The origin of the name Nechtan is unclear, but it most probably contains an ancient word for water ('necht'). At any rate, it was from early times regarded as a pseudonym for Nuadhu, who was also known as Nuadhu Necht. Another well-known pseudo-name for him was Elcmar (later, Ealcmhar) which meant 'the envious one'. This designation probably sprang from the triumph of the Mac Óg over him.
His association with water parallels the engraving connected with Nodons at Lydney. There is, indeed, a striking similarity between the hooked fish at Lydney and a mediaeval story which connects Nuadhu with a mystical salmon in the river Boyne. This salmon was claimed to have become a source of wisdom from eating nuts which fell from hazel-trees at the well of Nechtan. From the salmon the young Fionn mac Cumhaill gained knowledge in a striking account which has him tasting it by chance, whereas it was intended for an elderly seer called Finnéigeas. The full name of this seer is elsewhere given as Nuadhu Finneígeas, and the story was obviously suggested by the myth of how the youngster called Mac Óg got the dwelling of Newgrange from Nuadhu. The whole development can best be explained by supposing that the image of Nuadhu and his fish was super-imposed onto the earlier lore of Fionn's wisdom. Considering that Fionn (earlier, Find) was a cult figure at the river Boyne from a quite archaic period in the Celtic culture of Ireland, it is likely that the whole lore of Nuadhu was introduced into the region at some time in the final centuries BC.
A further development from this fusion was to make Nuadhu a maternal ancestor of Fionn. According to the mediaeval literature, when he came of age Fionn gained possession by force of Nuadhu's fortress on the hill of Almhu (Allen, Co. Kildare). Some influence from the Lugh myth is involved here, but the basis must again be the contest between Nuadhu and the Mac Óg. Another result of the Fionn connection was the frequent designation of Nuadhu as 'Nuadhu Find', the epithet being interpreted to mean 'white'. We are accordingly told that Nuadhu whitened the walls of his fortress at Almhu with lime. He was regarded by the Leinstermen as their ancestor, and his removal from Sídh Chleitigh to Almhu was clearly part of the process by which the Leinstermen carried the cult of Fionn south with them when they were expelled from the Boyne valley by the Connachta. Further development of the Nuadhu lore is evidenced by the designation Nuadhu Find Feimhin (referring to the plain of Feimhean in Co. Tipperary), and according to which he was claimed to reside in the cairn on Slievenamon. This resulted from the borrowing of Leinster ideology and lore by the ruling Eoghanacht sept in Munster during the 7th century, a factor which caused them also to claim descent from Nuadhu. The Eoghanacht were finding common cause with the Leinstermen in their opposition to the growing power of the Connachta - Ui Néill. This accounts for the pseudonym Mugh Nuadhat ('servant of Nuadhu'), given by the Eoghanacht to their ancestor Eoghan Mór, whom they represented as contending with the ancestor of the Connachta, Conn Céadchathach.
A more general designation is Nuadhu Find Fáil, which may derive from the early Boyle valley context, for the stone of Fáil was the symbol of kingship at Tara. This stone was, according to tradition, brought to Ireland by the Tuatha Dé with Nuadhu as their king. They also brought a great 'sword of Nuadhu', from which no opponent could escape and no wound inflicted by which could be healed. It seems likely that originally Nuadhu's blemishing involved a sacrifice or an accident with his own weapon. No such account survives, but it may be that some type of curative water-symbolism was involved and that his arm was a metonym for a river. Mediaeval Irish literature had its own rationale for the blemish. According to it, Nuadhu's right arm was severed in combat between Nuadhu and the Fir Bolg warrior Sreang at the first battle of Moytirra. Other Tuatha Dé warriors intervened to save Nuadhu and he was carried from the field. He and Sreang resumed their combat in the battle next day. He asked Sreang to tie up his own right hand so as to ensure fair terms, but Sreang refused, and in order to prevent fatal injury to Nuadhu the Tuatha Dé offered the province of Connacht to Sreang and his Fir Bolg. Breas then became king of the Tuatha Dé, but after seven years Dian Céacht made the silver arm for Nuadhu and he was restored. Nuadhu gave authority over his army to the newcomer Lugh in the second battle of Moytirra, a battle in which he himself was slain by Balar. A post-mediaeval writer (probably 15th century) composed a romance the title of which claimed it to be the history of Nuadhu Find Feimhin. Here Nuadhu is represented as son of a Gaelic king of Ireland called Giallchadh who resides at Tara. Giallchadh is a widower, and he marries a young lady of his son's age. Egged on by her malicious maidservant, she makes sexual advances to Nuadhu, but he forcefully rejects her. Then she pretends to Giallchadh that his son has molested her, and Nuadhu has to flee before his father's army. He fights stupendously whenever confronted and takes refuge on the island of Gola (off the Donegal coast). There he encounters and overcomes a force of Norsemen who are coming to invade Ireland, and he sails away from the country. Meanwhile, his father's druid discovers the truth about the allegations against him but, on finding the remains of a Norse prince who resembles Nuadhu, it is presumed that the young hero is dead. Nuadhu gains several great victories abroad, and returns to Ireland at the head of a huge force. When he identifies himself, he is welcomed and inherits the kingship. The writer of this text had obviously read an account of the adventures of Eoghan Mór, and he combined that with the 'Potiphar's Wife' plot which was quite popular in mediaeval Irish literature.
son of Eochaidh, son of Edarlamh (the king who was over the Tuatha-De-Dananns), was cut off in the same battle. The aforesaid Eochaidh was the last king of the Firbolgs. Nine of them had assumed kingship, and thirty-seven years was the length of their sway over Ireland.
The first year of the reign of Nuadhat Airgeatlamh, after his hand had been welded with a piece of refined silver.
At the end of the twentieth year of the reign of Nuadhat of the Silver Hand, he fell in the battle of Magh-Tuireadh na bh-Fomorach[75] This name is still remembered in the country, and is now applied to a townland in the parish of Kilmactranny, barony of Tirerrill, and county of Sligo. There are very curious sepulchral monuments still to be seen on this battle-field, of which a minute description has been given by Dr. Petrie in a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy in 1836. See note under AD 1398. There was also a long account of this battle of the northern Magh-Tuireadh, as well as that of the southern Magh-Tuireadh, or Magh-Tuireadh-Conga, already mentioned, but the Editor never saw a copy of it. O'Flaherty, who appears to have read it, states (Ogygia, part iii. c 12) that Balor Bemen or Bailcbemnech, general of the Fomorians, was slain in this battle by a stone thrown at him by the son of his daughter, from a machine called tabhall, which is believed to have been a sling; and that Kethlenn, the wife of Balor, fought with desperation and wounded the Dagda, afterwards king of the Tuatha-De-Dananns, with some missile weapon. This Balor, the general of the Fomorians, is still vividly remembered by tradition throughout Ireland, as Balor Béimeann, and in some places they frighten children by his name; but he is more vividly remembered on Tory Island.- where he is believed to have chiefly resided,- and on the opposite coast of Donegal, than anywhere else, except, perhaps, at Cong, in Mayo. The tradition connected with Balor, on Tory Island, was written by the Editor in 1835, from the dictation of Shane O'Dugan, whose ancestor is said to have been living on Tory Island in St. Colmbkille's time. It is a curious specimen of the manner in which tradition accounts for the names of places, and remembers the names of historical characters. This story is evidently founded on facts; but from its having floated on the tide of tradition for, perhaps three thousand years, names have been confounded, and facts much distorted. The history of Balor runs as follows, as related to the Editor by Shane O'Dugan, one of the O'Dugans of Tory Island: " In days of yore (a period beyond the reach of chronology,- far back in the night of time) flourished three brothers, Gavida, Mac Samhthiann, and Mac Kineely (Mac Cinnfaelaid) the first of whom was a distinguished smith, who held his forge at Drumnatinne, a place in the parish of Rath-Finan, which derived its name from that circumstance, for Druim na teine in Irish sounds ridge of fire in English, alluding to Gavida's furnace. Mac Kineely was lord of that district, comprising the parishes of Rath-Finan and Tullaghobegely, and was possessed of a cow called Glas Gaivlen [Glas Gaibhnenn], which was so lactiferous as to be coveted by all his neighbors, and so many attempts had been made at stealing her, that he found it necessary to watch her constantly. " At this same remote period flourished on Tory (an island lying in the ocean opposite Drumnatinne, which received that name from its presenting a towery appearance from the continent of Tir-Connell, and from the many prominent rocks thereon, towering into the heavens, and called tors by the natives) a famous warrior, by the name of Balor, who had one eye in the middle of his forehead, and another directly opposite it, in the back of his skull. This latter eye, by its foul distorted glances, and its beams and dyes of venom, like that of the Basilisk, would strike people dead, and for that reason Balor kept it constantly covered, except whenever he wished to get the better of enemies by petrifying them with looks; and hence the Irish, to this day, call an evil or overlooking eye by the name of Suil Bhaloir. But though possessed of such powers of self-defence, it appears that it had been revealed to a Druid that Balor should be killed by his own O, or grandson ! At this time Balor had but an only child, a daughter, Ethnea by name, and seeing that she was the only medium through which his destruction could be wrought, he shut her up in an impregnable tower, which he himself, or some of his ancestors, had built some time before on the summit of Tor-more (a lofty and almost inaccessible rock, which, shooting into the blue sky, breaks the roaring waves and confronts the storms at the eastern extremity of Tory Island); and here he also placed a company of twelve matrons, to whom he gave the strictest charge not to allow any man near her, or give her an idea of the existence or nature of that sex. Here the fair Ethnae remained a long time imprisoned; and, though confined within the limits of a tower, tradition says that she expanded into bloom and beauty; and though her female attendants never expressed the sound man in her presence, still she would often question them about the manner in which she herself was brought into existence, and of the nature of the beings that she saw passing up and down the sea in curraghs: often did she relate to them her dreams of other beings and other places, and other enjoyments, which sported in her imagination while locked up in the arms of repose. But the matrons, faithful to their trust, never offered a single word in explanation of those mysteries which enchanted her imagination. In the meantime, Balor, now secure in his existence, and regardless of the prediction of the Druid, continued his business of war and rapine. He achieved many a deed of fame; captured many a vessel; subdued and cast in chains many an adventurous band of sea rovers; and made many a decent upon the opposite continent, carrying with him, to the Island, men and property. But his ambition could never be satiated until he could get possession of that most valuable cow, the Glas Galvin, and to obtain her, he therefore directed all his powers of strength and stratagem. One day Mac Kineely, the chief of the tract opposite the island, repaired to his brother's forge to get some swords made, and took with him the valuable Glas Galvin by a halter which he constantly held in his own hand by day, and by which she was tied and secured by night. When he arrived at the forge, he instructed her to the care of his brother, Mac Samhthainn, who, it appears, was there too, on some business connected with war, and entered the forge himself, to see the sword properly shaped and steeled. But, while he was within, Balor, assuming the form of a red-headed little boy, came to Mac Samhthainn and told him that he heard his two brothers (Gavida and Mac Kineely) saying, within at the furnace, that they would use all his (Mac Samthainn's) steel in making MacKineely's swords, and would make his of iron. "By the Seomh, then," says Mac Samthainn, "I'll let them know that I'm not to be humbugged so easily; hold this cow my red-headed little friend, and you will see how soon I'll make them alter their intention." With that he rushed into the forge with a passion, and swearing by all the powers above and below, that he would make his two brothers pay for their dishonesty. Balor, as soon as he got the halter into his hand, carried off the Glas, with the rapidity of lightning, to Tory Island, and the place where he dragged her in by the tail is, to this day (a great memorial of the transaction), called Port-na-Glaise, at the harbour of the Glas or Green cow. When Mac Kineely heard his brother's exclamations, he knew immediately that Balor had effected his purpose; so, running out of the forge, he perceived Balor and the cow in the middle of the Sound of Tory ! Mac Samthainn, also being soon made sensible of the scheme of Balor, suffered a few boxes on the head from his brother with impunity. Mac Kineely wandered about distracted for several hours, before he could be brought to a deliberate consideration of what was best to be done to recover the cow; but, after he had given full vent to his passions, he called to the lonely habitation of a lonely Druid, who lived not far from the place, and consulted him upon the matter. The Druid told him that the cow could never be recovered as long as Balor was living, for that, in order to keep her, he would never close the Basilisk eye, but petrify every man that would venture to get near her. Mac Kineely, however, had a Leanan-sidhe, or familiar sprite, called Biroge of the Mountain, who undertook to put him in the way of the destruction of Balor. After having dressed him in the clothes worn by ladies in that age, she wafted him, on the wings of a storm, across the Sound, to the airy top of Tormore, and there, knocking at the door of the tower, demanded admittance for a noble lady whom she rescued from the cruel hands of a tyrant who had attempted to carry her off, by force, from the protection of her people. The matrons, fearing to disoblige the Banshee, admitted both into the tower. As soon as the daughter of Balor beheld the noble lady thus introduced, she recognised a countenance like one of which she had frequently felt enamored in her dreams, and tradition says that she immediately fell in love with her noble guest. Shortly after this, the Banshee, by her supernatural influence over human nature, laid the twelve matrons asleep; and Mac Kineely, having left the fair daughter of Balor pregnant, was invisibly carried back by his friendly sprite to Drumnatinne. When the matrons awoke they persuaded Ethnea that the appearance of Biroge and her protege was only a dream, but told he never to mention it to her father. "Thus did matters remain until the daughter of Balor brought fourth three sons at a birth, which, when Balor discovered, he immediately secured the offspring, and sent them, rolled up in a sheet (which was fastened with a delg or pin), to be cast into a certain whirlpool; but as they were carried across a small harbour, on the way to it, the delg fell out of the sheet, and one of the three children dropped into the water, but the other two were secured and drowned in the intended whirlpool. The child that had fallen into the harbour, though he apparently sunk to the bottom, was carried away by the Banshee who had cleared the way to his procreation, and the harbour is to this day called Port-a-delig, or the Harbour of the Pin. The Banshee wafted the child (the first, it appears of the three, who had seen the light of this world) across the Sound in safety to his father, who sent him to be fostered by his brother Gavida, who brought him up to his own trade, which then ranked among the learned professions, and was deemed of so much importance that Brighit, the goddess of the poets, thought it not beneath her dignity to preside over the smiths also. "Balor, who now thought that he had again baffled the fates by drowning the three children, having learned from his Druid that Mac Kineely was the man who had made this great effort to set the wheel of his destiny in rapid motion, crossed the Sound, and landed on that part of the continent (for some more modern occupier) Ballyconnell, with a band of his fierce associates, seized upon Mac Kineely, and laying his head on a large white stone (one holding him upon it by the long hair, and others by the hands and legs) cut it off, clear with one blow of his ponderous sword ! The blood flowed around in warm floods, and penetrated the stone to its very centre. This stone, with its red veins, still tells this deed of blood, and gives name to a district comprehending two parishes. It was raised, in 1794, on a pillar sixteen feet high, by Wyby More Olpherts, Esq., and his wife, who had carefully collected all the traditions connected with Balor. It is shewn to the curious traveller as Clogh-an-Neely (the name which Wyby More has committed to the durability of marble, but the Four Masters write it more correctly Cloc Chinnfaolaid at the years 1284, 1554), and forms a very conspicuous object in the neighbourhood. "Notwithstanding all these efforts of Balor to avert his destiny, the Banshee had executed the will of fates. For after the decollation of Mac Kineely, Balor, now secure, as he thought, in his existence, and triumphant over the fates, frequented the continent without fear of opposition, and employed Gavida to make all his military weapons. But the heir of Mac Kineely, in course of time, grew up to be an able man, and, being an excellent smith, Balor, who knew nothing of his birth, became greatly attached to him. The heir of Mac Kineely, who was well aware of his father's fate, and aquainted with the history of his own birth and escape from destruction, was observed to indulge in gloomy fits of despondency, and frequently to visit the blood-stained stone, and to return from it with a sullen brow which nothing could smooth. One day Balor came to the forge to get some spears made, and it happened that Gavida was from home upon some private business, so that all the work of that day was to be executed by his young foster-son. In the course of the day Balor happened to mention, with pride, his conquest of Mac Kineely, but to his own great misfortune, for the young smith watched his opportunity, and taking a glowing rod from the furnace, thrust it through the Basilisk eye of Balor and out through the other side of his head, thus avenging the death of his father, slaying his grandfather, and executing the decree of fate, which nothing can avert. Some say that this took place at Knocknafola, or Bloodyforeland, but others, who place the scene of Balor's death at Drumnatinne, account for the name of Knocknafola by making it the scene of a bloody battle between the Irish and Danes. Tradition, however, errs as to the place of Balor's death, for according to Irish history, he was killed by his grandson, Lughaidh Lamhfhada, in the second battle of Magh-Tuireadh.- See Ogygia, part iii. c. 12 . by Balor[76] Balar (also Balor, Bolur) Mythical tyrant, who was sometimes given the sobriquet Bailcbhéimneach ('strong-smiting'). His name seems to have originally meant 'the flashing one' and would have been 'Boleros' in ancient Celtic. Classical authors such as Ptolemy and Diodorus Siculus attest to a promontory in Cornwall being anciently known as Bolerion, and the inference is that a figure with such a name was associated with that place (probably Land's End). The Irish Balar is described in the early literature as grandson of an obscure personage called Nét and is said to have met his death at Carn Uí Néit ('the Cairn of Net's Grandson'). This is Mizen Head in Co Cork. Such associations with promontories in the extreme south-west of both Britain and Ireland strongly suggest the idea of the setting sun, and other imagery of Balar accords well with this. In one early text he is called Balar 'Birug-derc' (i.e. piercing eyed), and he is represented in story as having a fearsome eye which destroyed hosts 'by its poison'. Balar's role in Irish tradition is generally confined to the myth of Lugh, to whom his daughter gave birth against his wishes. In the mediaeval text on the second battle of Moytirra, he appears as a leader of the sea-pirate race called Fomhóire who oppress the divine race Tuatha Dé Danann. He is associated with the north and is said to have been king of the Hebridian Islands off the coast of Scotland. The general imagery of the Fomhóire has, however, been much influenced by that of the Norse raiders who harassed Ireland in the ninth and tenth centuries, and there is no reason to doubt the greater antiquity of his connection with the seas off the south-west coast. 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, and the killing of a tyrant by his prophesied grandson on the other. This latter is the Lugh myth, and it is reasonable to assume that Balar properly belonged to that context. The fact that Breas, rather than him, is the overall commander of the Fomhóire, and that Breas's role is much more fundamental to the plot of the battle, strengthens this assumption. The likelihood, then, is that when the harvest-myth of Lugh reached Ireland it appropriated to itself a leading personification of the scorching sun from the lore which was current at the time, and that Balar was thus made to fit the role of the tyrant-grandfather. The clash of Balar with Lugh, as it has come down to us in both literature and folklore, shows the influence of the biblical contest between David and Goliath. The weapon used by Lugh was the same as that used by David, a sling-stone, which we are told drove the eye back through Balar's head. Old Irish accounts of a slaying of an enemy by a hero in single combat usually have a great spear or javelin as the weapon of triumph, and this is likely to have been the case in the original version of this narrative also. Similarly, the portrayal of Balar has been tempered by the image of Goliath. He is of enormous size in our earliest text on the Moytirra battle, and when he falls dead 'thrice nine' of his own soldiers are crushed underneath him. Otherwise he is described with rather spontaneous dramatic touches. We read that the eye was never opened except on a battlefield - it had a polished ring in its lid, and it required four men to lift this lid. A rather ingenious, though superfluous, explanation is given of how the eye became poisonous - when the druids of his father had been brewing a magic concoction, Balar had come to observe the work and the fumes had settled on the eye, bringing with them their venomous power. A variant description of Balar's death was current from at least the 12th century. According to it, he survived the loss of his eye in the battle and was pursued by Lugh all the way to Mizen Head. When cornered and certain of his doom, he tried to exact vengeance by telling Lugh that he could gain all the power of his grandfather by performing a certain act. This was to place the severed head of Balar on top of his own. Having decapitated the tyrant, Lugh instead laid the head on a large rock, which was immediately dashed to pieces. Variants of this episode have survived in folklore recensions of the Lugh myth down to our own time, though Mizen Head is no longer mentioned in them. In these tellings, Balar is said to have had his base on Tory Island off the Donegal coast, and he is said to have oppressed Ireland with cruel taxes. This is derived from the mediaeval literature, which situated the stronghold of the Fomhóire on that island and portrayed them as robbers and exactors of tribute. Various landmarks are pointed out on the island, such as the site of his fortress (Dún Bhalair), the nigh inaccessible peak on which he had a tower (Túr Bhalair) where his daughter was kept, and a deep cleft where he used to keep prisoners. The withering effects of his evil eye were pointed out in phenomena as varied as the black tips of the rushes and the barren slopes of the mountains Muckish and Errigal on the mainland. In folk versions of the Balar myth, his grandson Lugh was assisted by a friendly smith called Goibhleann (Goibhniu). This Goibhleann had a marvelous cow (the Glas Ghoibhneann), which Balar tried to steal from its owner. A variant account of these episodes was current in Co Monaghan, according to which Balar drove the cow and its calf down into Leinster, but when they reached the coast near Dublin the cow tried to turn back, and Balar raised the lid from his eye to see what was troubling her. Immediately the cow and her calf were turned into rocks, which are now the two Rockabill islands off Skerries. His eye was reputed to have had a similar effect in Co. Mayo, the folk at Cong claiming that rocks in the locality were men who had been petrified by its glance. As might be expected, descriptions of how he employed his unique faculty are lavishly dramatised, for instance the following account from Mayo: 'He had a single eye in his forehead, a venomous fiery eye. There were always several coverings over this eye. One by one Balar removed the coverings. With the first covering the bracken began to wither, with the second the grass became copper-coloured, with the third the woods and timber began to heat, with the fourth smoke came from the trees, with the fifth everything grew red, with the sixth it sparked. With the seventh they were all set on fire, and the whole countryside was ablaze!' of the mighty blows, one of the Fomorians.
After the fortieth year of the reign of Lugh Lamhfhada over Ireland, he fell by Mac Cuill at Caendruim.[78] This was the ancient name of the hill of Uisneach, in Westmeath, situated about four miles south-east of the village of Ballymore-Lough-Swedy. See Ogygia, part iii. c. xiii. It was in the reign of this Lugh that the fair of Tailltean[79] Now Telltown, near the River Boyne, in the county of Meath, and nearly midway between Kells and Navan. This fair, at which various games and sports were celebrated, continued down to the time of Roderic O'Connor, the last monarch of Ireland. It was celebrated annually on the first of August, which is still called Lugh-Nasadh, i.e. Lugh's fair, games or sports, by the native Irish.- See Cormac's Glossary. in voce Lugnasad. See also Ogygia, part iii. cc. xiii. lvi. The remains of a large earthen rath, and traces of three artificial lakes, and other remains, are still to be seen there. To the left of the road, as you go from Kells to Donaghpatrick, there is a hollow, called Lag an aonaig, i.e. the hollow of the fair, where according to tradition, marriages were solemnized in Pagan times. There are vivid traditions of this fair yet extant in the country; and Teltown was, till recently, restored by the men of Meath for hurling, wrestling, and other manly sports. was established in commemoration and remembrance of his foster-mother, Taillte, the daughter of Maghmor, King of Spain, and the wife of Eochaidh, son of Erc, the last king of the Firbolgs.
After the completion of the last year of the eighty years which Eochaidh Ollathair passed in the monarchy of Ireland, he died at Brugh,[81] i.e. Brugh-na-Boinne, a place on the River Boyne, near Stackallan Bridge, in the county of Meath. In the account of the Tuatha-De-Dananns preserved in the Book of Lecan, it is stated that Dhagda Mor (i.e. the Great Good Fire, so called from his military ardour), for eighty years king of Ireland, and that he had three sons, Aenghus, Aedh, and Cermad, who were buried with their father at Brugh-na-Boinne, where the mound called Sidh-an-Boinne was raised over them, as a monument. It may be further remarked that aengus-an-Bhrogha was considered the presiding fairy of the Boyne till recently, and that his name is still familiar to the old inhabitants of Meath, who are fast forgetting their traditions with the Irish language. For some accounts of the monuments which anciently existed at Brugh-na-Boinne, see Petrie's Inquiry into the Origin and uses of the Round towers of Ireland, pp. 100, 101. The monuments ascribed by the ancient Irish writers to the Tuatha-De-Danann colony still remain, and are principally situated in Meath, near the Boyne, as at Drogheda, Dowth, Knowth, and Newgrange. There are other monuments of them at Cnoc-Aine and Cnoc-Gréine, in the county of Limerick, and on the Pap Mountains, Da cic Danainne, in the SE of the county of Kerry. See the year 861. These monuments are of the most remote antiquity, and prove that the Tuatha-De-Dananns were a real people, though their history is so much wrapped up in fable and obscurity. of the venom of the wound which Cethlenn[82] Dr. O'Connor latinizes this Kethlendius, as if it were the name of a man, but according to the old accounts of the battle of Magh-Tuireadh, Cethlenn, who wounded the Daghda in the second battle of Magh-Tuireadh (not the first, as incorrectly stated by the Four Masters), was the wife of Balor Beimenn, and grandmother of Lugh Lamhfhada, who slew Balor in the same battle. It is stated in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, that Inishkeihleann (Enniskillen, in Fermanagh) was called from her. inflicted upon him in the first battle of Magh-Tuireadh.