A Literary History of Ireland, from Earliest Times to the Present Day — John Shaqi
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
Milesius' own genealogy and the wanderings of his ancestors are
also recounted for many generations before they land in Ireland,
but during this pre-Milesian period there are no side-genealogies,
the ancestors of Milesius himself alone are given, traced through
twenty-two apparently Gaelic names and thirteen Hebrew ones, passing
through Japhet and ending in Adam. It is only with the landing of the
three sons and the nephew of Milesius that the ramifications of Irish
genealogies begin, and they are backed up by the whole weight of the
Irish topographical system which is shot through and through with
places named after personages and events of the early Milesian period,
and of the period of the Tuatha De Danann.
It will be well to give here a brief _résumé_ of the accounts of the
Milesians' wanderings before they arrived in Ireland. Briefly then the
Gaels are traced back all the way to Fenius Farsa, a king of Scythia,
who is then easily traced up to Adam. But beginning with this Fenius
Farsa we find that he started a great school for learning languages.
His son was Niul, who also taught languages, and his son again was
Gaedhal, from whom the Gaels are so called. This Niul went into Egypt
and married Scota, daughter of Pharaoh. This is a post-Christian
invention, which is not satisfied without bringing Niul into contact
with Aaron, whom he befriended, in return for which Moses healed his
son Gaedhal from the bite of a serpent. Since then says an ancient
verse--
"No serpent nor vile venomed thing
Can live upon the Gaelic soil,
No bard nor stranger since has found
A cold repulse from a son of Gaedhal."
Gaedhal's son was Esru, whose son was Sru, and when the Egyptians
oppressed them he and his people emigrated to Crete. His son was Eber
Scot, from whom some say the Gaels were called Scots, but most of the
Irish antiquarians maintain that they are called Scots because they
once came from Scythia,[2] to which cradle of the race Eber Scot led
the nation back again. Expelled from Scythia a couple of generations
later the race plant themselves in the country of Gaethluighe, where
they were ruled over by one called Eber of the White Knee. The eighth
in descent from him emigrated with four ships to Spain. His son was
Breogan, who built Brigantia. His grandson was Golamh, called Miledh
Easpáin, _i.e._, Warrior of Spain,[3] whose name has been universally,
but badly, Latinised Milesius, and it was his three sons and his nephew
who landed in Ireland and who planted there the Milesian people.
Milesius himself never put foot in Ireland, but he seems in his own
person to have epitomised the wanderings of his race, for we find him
returning to Scythia, making his way thence into Egypt, marrying Scota,
a daughter of Pharaoh, and finally returning to Spain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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