Irish mythology
The
mythology of pre-Christian
Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to
Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in
medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of
Celtic mythology. Although many of the manuscripts have failed to survive, and much more material was probably never committed to writing, there is enough remaining to enable the identification of four distinct, if overlapping, cycles: the
Mythological Cycle, The
Ulster Cycle, the
Fenian Cycle and the
Historical Cycle. There are also a number of extant mythological texts that do not fit into any of the cycles. In addition, there are a large number of recorded
folk tales that, while not strictly mythological, feature personages from one or more of these four cycles.
The three main manuscript sources for Irish mythology are the late
11th/early
12th century Lebor na hUidre which is in the library of the
Royal Irish Academy, the early 12th century
Book of Leinster in the library of
Trinity College, Dublin, and the
Rawlinson manuscript B 502 (
Rawl.), housed in the
Bodleian Library at
Oxford University. Despite the dates of these sources, most of the material they contain predates their composition. The earliest of the prose can be dated on linguistic grounds to the
8th century, and some of the verse may be as old as the
6th century.
Other important sources include a group of four manuscripts originating in the west of Ireland in the late
14th or early
15th century:
The Yellow Book of Lecan,
The Great Book of Lecan,
The Book of Hy Many, and
The Book of Ballymote. The first of these contains part of the earliest known version of the
Táin Bó Cúailnge and is housed in Trinity College. The other three are in the Royal Academy. Other 15th century manuscripts, such as
The Book of Fermoy also contain interesting materials, as do such later syncretic works such as
Geoffrey Keating's
Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (
The History of Ireland) (ca.
1640), particularly as these later compilers and writers may have had access to manuscript sources that have since disappeared.
When using these sources, it is, as always, important to question the impact of the circumstances in which they were produced. Most of the manuscripts were created by
Christian monks, who may well have been torn between the desire to record their native culture and their religious hostility to pagan beliefs resulting in some of the gods being
euhemerized. Many of the later sources may also have formed part of a propaganda effort designed to create a history for the people of Ireland that could bear comparison with the mythological descent of their British invaders from the founders of
Rome that was promulgated by
Geoffrey of Monmouth and others. There was also a tendency to rework Irish genealogies to fit into the known schema of Greek or Biblical genealogy.
It was once unquestioned that medieval Irish literature preserved truly ancient traditions in a form virtually unchanged through centuries of
oral tradition back to the ancient
Celts of Europe. Kenneth Jackson famously described the Ulster Cycle as a "window on the Iron Age", and Garret Olmsted has attempted to draw parallels between
Táin Bó Cuailnge, the Ulster Cycle epic, and the iconography of the
Gundestrup Cauldron. However, this "nativist" position has been challenged by "revisionist" scholars who believe that much of it was created in Christian times in deliberate imitation of the
epics of
classical literature that came with
Latin learning. The revisionists would point to passages apparently influenced by the
Iliad in
Táin Bó Cuailnge, and the existence of
Togail Troi, a very early Irish adaptation of the
Aeneid found in the Book of Leinster, and note that the material culture of the stories is generally closer to the time of the stories' composition than to the distant past. A consensus has emerged which encourages the critical reading of the material.
The
Mythological Cycle, comprising stories of the former gods and origins of the Irish, is the least well preserved of the four cycles. The most important sources are the
Metrical Dindshenchas or
Lore of Places and the
Lebor Gabála Érenn or
Book of Invasions. Other manuscripts preserve such Mythological tales as
The Dream of Aengus,
The Wooing Of Étain and
Cath Maige Tuireadh,
The (second) Battle of Magh Tuireadh. One of the best known of all Irish stories,
Oidheadh Clainne Lir, or
The Tragedy of the Children of Lir, is also part of this cycle.
Lebor Gabála Érenn is a pseudo-history of Ireland, tracing the ancestry of the Irish back to
Noah. It tells of a series of invasions or "takings" of Ireland by a succession of peoples, one of whom was the people known as the
Tuatha Dé Danann, who were believed to have inhabited the island before the arrival of the
Gaels, or
Milesians. They faced opposition from their enemies, the
Fomorians, led by
Balor of the Evil Eye. Balor was eventually slain by
Lug Lámfada (Lug of the Long Arm) at the second battle of Magh Tuireadh. With the arrival of the Gaels, the Tuatha Dé Danann retired underground to become the
fairy people of later myth and legend.
The
Metrical Dindshenchas is the great onomastic work of early Ireland, giving the naming legends of significant places in a sequence of poems. It includes a lot of important information on Mythological Cycle figures and stories, including the Battle of Tailtiu, in which the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated by the Milesians.
It is important to note that by the middle ages the Tuatha Dé Danann were not viewed so much as gods as the shape-shifting magician population of an earlier
Golden Age Ireland. Texts such as
Lebor Gabála Érenn and
Cath Maige Tuireadh present them as kings and heroes of the distant past, complete with death-tales. However there is considerable evidence, both in the texts and from the wider Celtic world, that they were once considered
deities.
Even after they are displaced as the rulers of Ireland, characters such as
Lug, the
Mórrígan,
Aengus and
Manannan appear in stories set centuries later, betraying their immortality. A poem in the
Book of Leinster lists many of the Tuatha Dé, but ends "Although [the author] enumerates them, he does not worship them".
Goibniu,
Creidhne and
Luchta are referred to as
Trí Dée Dána ("three gods of craftsmanship"), and the
Dagda's name is interpreted in
medieval texts as "the good god".
Nuada is
cognate with the
British god
Nodens;
Lug is a reflex of the pan-
Celtic deity
Lugus;
Tuireann may be related to the
Gaulish Taranis;
Ogma to
Ogmios; the
Badb to
Catubodua.
Other important Tuatha Dé Danann figures
*
Boann*
Banba*
Brigid*
Creidhne*
Danu*
Dian Cecht*
Donn*
Ériu*
Étain*
Fódla*
Macha*
Nechtan*
Sídhe*
Banshee (also spelt
Bean Sidhe)
The
Ulster Cycle is set around the beginning of the Christian era and most of the action takes place in the provinces of
Ulster and
Connacht. It consists of a group of heroic stories dealing with the lives of
Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster, the great hero
Cúchulainn, the son of Lug, and of their friends, lovers, and enemies. These are the
Ulaid, or people of the North-Eastern corner of Ireland and the action of the stories centres round the royal court at
Emain Macha, close to the modern city of
Armagh. The Ulaid had close links with the Irish colony in
Scotland, and part of Cúchulainn's training takes place in that colony.
The cycle consists of stories of the births, early lives and training, wooings, battles, feastings and deaths of the heroes and reflects a warrior society in which warfare consists mainly of single combats and wealth is measured mainly in cattle. These stories are written mainly in prose. The centrepiece of the Ulster Cycle is the
Táin Bó Cúailnge. Other important Ulster Cycle tales include
The Tragic Death of Aife's only Son,
Bricriu's Feast, and
The Destruction of Ua Derga's Hostel.
The Exile of the Sons of Usnach, better known as the tragedy of
Deirdre and the source of plays by
John Millington Synge,
William Butler Yeats, and
Vincent Woods is also part of this cycle.
This cycle is, in some respects, close to the mythological cycle. Some of the characters from the latter reappear, and the same sort of shape-shifting magic is much in evidence, side by side with a grim, almost callous realism. While we may suspect a few characters, such as
Medb or
Cú Roí, of once being deities, and Cúchulainn in particular displays superhuman prowess, the characters are firmly mortal and rooted in a specific time and place. If the Mythological Cycle represents a Golden Age, the Ulster Cycle is Ireland's
Heroic Age.
Like the Ulster Cycle, the Fenian Cycle is concerned with the deeds of Irish heroes. The stories of the Fenian Cycle appear to be set around the
3rd century and mainly in the provinces of
Leinster and
Munster. They differ from the other cycles in the strength of their links with the Irish-speaking community in Scotland and there are many extant Fenian texts from that country. They also differ from the Ulster Cycle in that the stories are told mainly in
verse and that in tone they are nearer to the tradition of romance than the tradition of epic. The stories concern the doings of
Fionn mac Cumhail and his band of soldiers, the
Fianna.
The single most important source for the Fenian Cycle is the
Acallamh na Senórach (
Colloquy of the Old Men), which is found in two
15th century manuscripts, the
Book of Lismore and Laud 610, as well as a
17th century manuscript from
Killiney,
County Dublin. The text is dated from linguistic evidence to the
12th century. The text records conversations between the last surviving members of the Fianna and
St Patrick and runs to some 8,000 lines. The late dates of the manuscripts may reflect a longer oral tradition for the Fenian stories.
The Fianna of the story are divided into the Clann Baiscne, led by Fionn, and the Clann Morna, led by his enemy,
Goll mac Morna. Goll killed Fionn's father,
Cumhal, in battle and the boy Fionn was brought up in secrecy. As a youth, while being trained in the art of poetry, he accidentally burned his thumb while cooking the Salmon of Knowledge, which allowed him to suck or bite his thumb in order to receive bursts of stupendous wisdom. He took his place as the leader of his band and numerous tales are told of their adventures. Two of the greatest Irish tales,
Toraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghrainne (
The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne) and
Oisin in Tir na nOg form part of the cycle. The Diarmuid and Grainne story, which is one of the few Fenian prose tales, is a probable source of
Tristan and Iseult.
The world of the Fenian Cycle is one in which professional warriors spend their time hunting, fighting, and engaging in adventures in the spirit world. New entrants into the band are expected to be knowledgeable in poetry as well as undergo a number of physical tests or ordeals. Again, there is no religious element in these tales unless it is one of hero-worship.
It was part of the duty of the medieval Irish bards, or court
poets, to record the history of the family and the genealogy of the king they served. This they did in poems that blended the mythological and the historical to a greater or lesser degree. The resulting stories form what has come to be known as the Historical Cycle, or more correctly Cycles, as there are a number of independent groupings.
The kings that are covered range from the almost entirely mythological
Labraid Loingsech, who became High King of Ireland around
431 BC to the entirely historical
Brian Boru. However, the greatest glory of the Historical Cycle is the
Buile Shuibhne (
The Frenzy of Suibhne), a
12th century tale told in verse and prose.
Suibhne, king of
Dál nAraidi, was cursed by St Ronan and became a kind of half man, half bird, condemned to live out his life in the woods, fleeing from his human companions. The story has captured the imaginations of contemporary Irish poets and has been translated by
Trevor Joyce and
Seamus Heaney.
Adventures
The adventures, or
echtrae, are a group of stories of visits to the Irish
Other World. The most famous,
Oisin in Tir na nOg belongs to the Fenian Cycle, but several free-standing adventures survive, including
The Adventure of Conle,
The Voyage of Bran mac Ferbail and
The Adventure of Lóegaire.
Voyages
The voyages, or
immrama, are tales of sea journeys and the wonders seen on them. These probably grew from the experiences of fishermen combined with the Other World elements that inform the adventures. Of the seven
immrama mentioned in the manuscripts, only three survive: the
Voyage of Mael Dúin, the
Voyage of the Uí Chorra, and the
Voyage of Snedgus and Mac Riagla.
The Voyage of Mael Duin is the forerunner of the later
Voyage of St. Brendan.
Folk tales
At the beginning of the 19th Century,
Herminie T. Kavanagh wrote down many Irish folk tales which she published in magazines and in two books. Twenty-six years after her death, the tales from her two books,
Darby O'Gill and the Good People, and
Ashes of Old Wishes were made in to the film
Darby O'Gill and the Little People.
Primary sources in English translation
*Cross, Tom Peete and Clark Harris Slover.
Ancient Irish Tales. Barnes and Noble Books, Totowa, New Jersey, 1936 repr. 1988. ISBN 566198895.
*Dillon, Myles.
The Cycles of the Kings. Oxford University Press, 1946; reprinted Four Courts Press: Dublin and Portland, OR, 1994. ISBN 1851821783.
*Dillon, Myles.
Early Irish Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948; reprinted : Four Courts Press, Dublin and Portland, OR, 1994. ISBN 0785816763.
*Joseph Dunn:
The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúailnge (
1914)
*Winifred Faraday:
The Cattle-Raid of Cualng. London, 1904. This is a partial translation of the text in the Yellow Book of Lecan, partially censored by Faraday.
*Gantz, Jeffrey.
Early Irish Myths and Sagas. London: Penguin Books, 1981. ISBN 0140443975.
*Kinsella, Thomas.
The Tain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970. ISBN 0192810901.
Primary sources in Medieval Irish
Cath Maige Tuired: The Second Battle of Mag Tuired. Elizabeth A. Gray, Ed. Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1982. Series: Irish Texts Society (Series) ; v. 52. Irish text, English translation and philological notes.
Táin Bo Cuailnge from the Book of Leinster. Cecile O'Rahilly, Ed. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1984.
Táin Bo Cuailnge Recension I. Cecile O'Rahilly, Ed. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies 1976. Irish text, English translation and philological notes.
Retellings of the myths in English
*Lady
Augusta Gregory:
Cuchulain of Muirthemne (1902)
*Lady Augusta Gregory:
Gods and Fighting Men (1904)
*Juliet Mariller: "Daughter of the Forest", "Son of the Shadows", and "Child of the Prophecy" (Sevenwaters trilogy).
Secondary sources
*Coghlan, Ronan
Pocket Dictionary of Irish Myth and Legend. Belfast: Appletree, 1985.
*Mallory, J. P. Ed.
Aspects of the Tain. Belfast: December Publications, 1992. ISBN 0951706829.
*O'Rahilly, T. F.
Early Irish History and Mythology (1946)
*O hOgain, Daithi "Myth, Legend and Romance: An Encyclopedia of the Irish Folk Tradition" Prentice Hall Press, (1991) : ISBN 0132759594 (the only dictionary/encyclopedia with source references for every entry)
*Rees, Brinley and Alwyn Rees.
Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1961; repr. 1989. ISBN 500270392.
*Sjoestedt, M. L.
Gods and Heroes of the Celts. 1949; translated by Myles Dillon. repr. Berkeley, CA: Turtle Press, 1990. ISBN 1851821791.
*Williams, J. F. Caerwyn.
Irish Literary History. Trans. Patrick K. Ford. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, Wales, and Ford and Bailie, Belmont, Massachusetts. Welsh edition 1958, English translation 1992. ISBN 0926689037.
*
Department of Irish Folklore, Dublin. Includes the National Folklore Archives*
The Celtic Literature Collection - over one hundred ancient texts available to download free
*
Irish Literature, Mythology, Folklore, and Drama*
Winifred Faraday's version of the Tain*
Joseph Dunn's version of the Tain*
Another source for Joseph Dunn's version of the Tain*
Cecile O'Rahilly's version of the Tain*
A modern version of the Tain by Patrick Brown*
Gods and Fighting Men*
Buile Shuibhne*
Acallamh na Senórach*
Deirdre of the Sorrows*
The Irish mythology Cycles
