A Literary History of Ireland, from Earliest Times to the Present DayHyde, Douglas
History
A Literary History of Ireland, from Earliest Times to the Present Day
Hyde, Douglas
Civilization, Celtic, in literature; Irish literature -- History and criticism; Language and culture -- Ireland
[4] When the oldest list of current Irish sagas was drawn up, probably
in the seventh century, only one battle of Moytura was mentioned; this
was evidently what is now known as the second battle. In the more
recent list contained in the introduction to the Senchus Mór there is
mention made of both battles. There is only a single copy of each of
these sagas known to exist. Of most of the other sagas of this cycle
even the last copy has perished.
[5] Long afterwards, at the time that Ireland was divided into five
provinces, the Cruithnigh, or Picts, drove the Firbolg out of the
islands again, and they were forced to come back to Cairbré Niafer,
king of Leinster, who allotted them a territory, but placed such
a rack-rent upon them that they were glad to fly into Connacht,
where Oilioll and Mève--the king and queen who made the Táin Bo
Chuailgne--gave them a free grant of land, and there Duald Mac Firbis,
over two hundred and fifty years ago, found their descendants in
plenty. According to some accounts, they were never driven wholly
out of Connacht, and if they are a real race--as, despite their
connection with the obviously mythical Tuatha De Danann, they appear
to be--they probably still form the basis of population there. Máine
Mór, the ancestor of the O'Kellys, is said to have wrested from them
the territory of Ui Máiné (part of Roscommon and Galway) in the sixth
century. Their name and that of their fellow tribe, the Fir Domnan,
_appear_ to be the same as the Belgæ, and the Damnonii of Gaul and
Britain, who are said to have given its name to Devonshire. Despite
their close connection in the Book of Invasions and early history of
Ireland, the Firbolg stand on a completely different footing from the
De Danann tribes. Their history is recorded consecutively from that day
to this; many families trace their pedigree to them, and they never
wholly disappeared. No family traces its connection to the De Danann
people; they wholly disappear, and are in later times regarded as gods,
or demons, or fairies.
[6] Bress in the older form.
[7] When the Milesians landed they found a Tuatha De Danann queen,
called Eiriu, the old form of Eire or Erin, from whom the island was
believed to take its name. John Scotus is called in old authorities
Eriugena, not Erigena.
[8] For him _see_ above, pp. 113-15.
[9] Jubainville translates Tuatha De Danann by "tribes of the goddess
Dana." Danann is the genitive of Dana, and Dana is called the "mother
of the gods," but she is not a mother of the bulk of the De Danann
race, so that Jubainville's translation is a rather venturesome one,
and the Old Irish themselves did not take the word in this meaning;
they explained it as "the men of science who were as it were gods."
"Tuatha dé Danann, _i.e._, Dee in taes dána acus andé an taes trebtha,"
_i.e._, "the men of science were (as it were) gods and the laymen
no-gods."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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