[183] Larmime, "Kian, son of Kontje." [184] See p. 78; _LL_ 245_b_. [185] Mannhardt, _Mythol. Forsch._ 310 f. [186] "Fir Domnann," "men of Domna," a goddess (Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 597), or a god (D'Arbois, ii. 130). "Domna" is connected with Irish-words meaning "deep" (Windisch, _IT_ i. 498; Stokes, _US_ 153). Domna, or Domnu, may therefore have been a goddess of the deep, not the sea so much as the underworld, and so perhaps an Earth-mother from whom the Fir Domnann traced their descent. [187] Cormac, _s.v._ "Neith"; D'Arbois, v. 400; _RC_ xii. 61. [188] _LU_ 50. Tethra is glossed _badb_ (_IT_ i. 820). [189] _IT_ i. 521; Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 274 f. [190] _RC_ xii. 95. [191] _RC_ xii. 101. [192] See p. 374. [193] D'Arbois, ii. 198, 375. [194] _HL_ 90-91. [195] _HL_ 274, 319, 643. For Beli, see p. 112, _infra_. [196] Whatever the signification of the battle of Mag-tured may be, the place which it was localised is crowded with Neolithic megaliths, dolmens, etc. To later fancy these were the graves of warriors slain in a great battle fought there, and that battle became the fight between Fomorians and Tuatha Dé Dananns. Mag-tured may have been the scene of a battle between their respective worshippers. [197] O'Grady, ii. 203. [198] It should be observed that, as in the Vedas, the Odyssey, the Japanese _Ko-ji-ki_, as well as in barbaric and savage mythologies, _Märchen_ formulæ abound in the Irish mythological cycle. CHAPTER V. THE TUATHA DÉ DANANN The meaning formerly given to _Tuatha Dé Danann_ was "the men of science who were gods," _danann_ being here connected with _dán_, "knowledge." But the true meaning is "the tribes _or_ folk of the goddess Danu,"[199] which agrees with the cognates _Tuatha_ or _Fir Dea_, "tribes _or_ men of the goddess." The name was given to the group, though Danu had only three sons, Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharbar. Hence the group is also called _fir tri ndea_, "men of the three gods."[200] The equivalents in Welsh story of Danu and her folk are Dôn and her children. We have seen that though they are described as kings and warriors by the annalists, traces of their divinity appear. In the Cúchulainn cycle they are supernatural beings and sometimes demons, helping or harming men, and in the Fionn cycle all these characteristics are ascribed to them. But the theory which prevailed most is that which connected them with the hills or mounds, the last resting-places of the mighty dead. Some of these bore their names, while other beings were also associated with the mounds (_síd_)--Fomorians and Milesian chiefs, heroes of the sagas, or those who had actually been buried in them.[201] Legend told how, after the defeat of the gods, the mounds were divided among them, the method of division varying in different versions. In an early version the Tuatha Dé Danann are immortal and the Dagda divides the _síd_.[202] But in a poem of Flann Manistrech (_ob._ 1056) they are mortals and die.[203] Now