Overview of Druidic Mythology

Aongas mac Óg 
Belenos  
Beltaine  
Bishop Ussher 
Bodb Dearg  
Brigid  
Cattle_Raid_of_Cooley
Cernunnos 
Cormac mac Art 
Cú Chulainn  
The Dagda  
Danu  
Deirdre 
Dian Cécht
Diarmuid 
Donn 
Druid's Foot 
Ériu 
Fianna 
Finn mac Cool
Fionn mac Cumhaill 
Goibhniu 
Halloween  
Harp 
Imbolc 
Leprechaun 
Lia Fáil 
Lugh  
Lughnasadh  
Mag Tuired  
Manannán mac Lir  
Mog Roith 
The Morrighan 
Newgrange 
Ogma  
Oisín 
Samhaim   
aes Sídhe  
Stone of Destiny   
Tuatha Dé Danann 

   Irish mythology is different than Greek, Roman or Egyptian mythology.  For one thing they did not have gods and goddesses of this, that and the other thing like Athena, Minerva and Thoth, the deities of wisdom. Éire’s prehistoric pagan pantheon was mostly polypotent – good at many things – or else ‘place’ goddesses such as Shannon, Boann (River Boyne) or the 3 sisters Ériu, Banba and Fódla, for whom the Emerald Isle is named. 
  But the big difference is writing.  The Greeks, Romans and Egyptians left a lot of writing about their religious myths, practices and rituals and the Irish did not.  Much of the pagan epoch in Ireland was prehistoric – before writing – but even after writing arrived the ancient, fabled and remarkable ‘Oral Tradition’ continued; mythology, genealogy and law were all committed to memory and passed between generations by mouth to ear alone.  On top of this the druids’ sacred vow of secrecy kept their magic, lore and ritual from ever being known outside their own circles. 
   Some Irish mythology was eventually written down, beginning about the 7^th Century AD, by Christian monks.  Although Christianity has been particularly open about embracing some pagan customs, practices and traditions it has to be assumed that the monks ‘edited’ pagan tales to conform to Christian dogma.  By and large the Church accepted pagan mythology as long as it was called ‘history.’ 
   Likely Christian rewriting of extent mythology is only one problem.  The larger one is that there is only so much of it.  There is no way to tell how much was never written down, but it is certain that much was lost.  Also, the surviving literature is not always consistent in the telling of stories. 
   Other sources of information about Irish pagan mythology include similar medieval writing from Cymru (Wales), Cæsar and others writing about Gaul (France) and rather meager archaeological information. 
   Even the use of the terms ‘god’ or ‘goddess’ has been called into question.  Thinking of them as ‘faeries’ is wide spread, but also argued over.  The name in Gaelic, aes Sídhe, translates as ‘Mound people,’ so that enters the discussion. 
   Nor are the surviving literary and other sources consistent from one to the other on names, relationships or even events.  While the characters of the Greek pantheon can all be traced back to Uranus it is not so simple with the Irish.  While many of then are in the Tuatha Dé Dána – the People of the goddess Dána, whose name suggest both prowess in battle and poetry – there are others that precede, succeed or are just outside the Tuatha. 
   Donn, for example – whose name means ‘dark’ – is remembered as the first mortal human to die and is thence responsible for a hospitable welcome to the Land of the Dead for we who follow. 
   These are some of the scholarly limitations on understanding the druidic paganry of prehistoric Ireland.  But this is a religious website, not confined by the aegis of referencible material.  
   There are 3 things that should be understood in considering these topics on this website.  First, reincarnation was an accepted occurrence in Iron Age Ireland, so it would be assumed there could be reincarnated druids with past-life memories that are more accurate than the stories recorded by Christian monks.  Second, a druid’s quintessential magical gift was the ability to communicate with the Faerie Cavalcade, the aes Sídhe, the very pantheon being described here, and that source of information would not be considered ‘scholarly’ in any contemporary sense.  Third – and this is most important – this is about Celtic paganism as practiced in isolated Ireland in the Centuries before Patrick, so there is always going to be a 3^rd! 
   Lastly keep in mind that these are Irish stories about Irish mythology and the Irish love a good story, and are better at it anybody else.  Christian mythology is dogma; you have to believe it or go to Hell.  Irish mythology is just good story telling.  We hope you enjoy it.  Instead of Christian morals druidic mythology is about honor, nobility and responsibility to family, tribe and nature.  It is existential not ecclesiastical, entertainment not dogma and, hopefully, fun not formalistic. 
   This Lexicon is not canon, scripture or revelation in any sense.  For such information on pagan beliefs, practices and such please visit www.vatican.va. 

   The handsome fairy Angus the Young, who was born on the day he was conceived, is a warrior, sage and patron of young love.  His kisses turn into birds and bring love to the maidens of Ireland, a bit like the Roman god Cupid's arrows.  His father is The Dagda, the Good God and All Father.  His mother is Boann, another fairy's wife.  This is the type of thing The Dagda was good at.

   There is a beautiful tale of Aengus falling in love, in a dream, with a beautiful maiden he saw beside a lake surrounded by fifty companions.  Awakening from the dream he fell into a deep, pineful, mourning love sickness.  His parents hurt with him, and his brother, Bodb Dearg, helps him find the girl of his dreams -- literally.  She is the fairy princesses  Caer Iborméith, daughter of the King of Connacht.  She was at a lake in a large company because her animal form is a swan.  Aongas is granted the power to become a swan and they fly off together and live happily ever after.  The ballet Swan Lake is based on the tale of the Dance of Angus mac Oc.
   In another tale young Óengus returns home to find that his father, The Dagda, has already out inheritances to all his other children and Óengus has gotten nothing.  The youth convinces the All Father to let him have his palace, Brú (Newgrange), for 'a day and a night.'  In the Gælic tongue this is a play on words so that every night he has a day coming and every day a night, in other words he has tricked the Good God out of his own home!

   Bel is a sun fairy for whom Beltrain, one of the four great annual festivals, is observed.  The May 1st rite, named in his honor, is when he defeats the old hag, Cailleach Beara, who has been bedeviling Irish folk all Winter long with bad weather.  Bel turns her to stone.

   Alas, wars are never won, only battles, and bad weather always returns.
   Belenos is consort and companion of Danu, Chieftess of Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu.  As such he is sort of the father of the Irish faery folk, the Sidhe, the heroines and heros of these myths.
   Read THE AMERICAN DRUID MONITOR article on Bel.  Click here.

Beltaine

   Beltain is the festive celebration about May 1st that marks the end of Winter and the beginning of Summer.  It is the date the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu, arrived in Ireland, and is one of the four great cross-quarter festivals of the turning of each year.  Merrymaking includes bonfires, May poles and parades by Socialist workers.
   Read THE AMERICAN DRUID MONITOR article on Beltran.  Click here   

   James Ussher was the 17th Centruy AD Anglican Archbishop of Ireland whose 'scholarly' chronology dated creation at October 24th, 4004 BCE, at 10 o'clock in the morning.  We believe it is equally true that the garden isle of Éire was then called the Garden of Eden.

   Bishop Ussher was an early 'creationist,' pitiable folk who seemingly have been cursed to miss the fun, fancy and frivolity of myths by mistaking them for facts.
   Read article THE AMERICAN DRUID MONITOR on Bishop Ussher.  Click here.

   Bodb the Red is a son of The Dadga, the Good God, and followed him as king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu.   Red Lake in Munster is named for him.

   As king of the Sidhe of Munster, the immortal mound folk, his White Bull, called Findbennach, was stolen byAilill, the husband of Ulster's Queen Medb's  and that set off a war between Munster and Ulster.  The epic poetic account of this, Táin Bó Chuailgne, the Cattle Raid of Cooley, is scholarly compared to the Greek's Iliad and Odyssey.

   The triple fairy Brighit is the most revered in Irish Druidic mythology.  Brigit the maiden is the fairy of poetry, music and sun light.  Brigit the mother is the fairy of childbirth, peace and the hearth.  Brigit the crone is the fairy of wisdom. healing and the forge.

   Brigit's father is The Dagda, the mythological All-father of Ireland.  They are members of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu.  She was born at the moment of sunrise and rose into the sky with fire coming from her head.  As a baby she was fed the milk of magical cows from the Otherworld.  She had an apple orchard in the Otherworld, and her bees brought charmed nectar from there.  Shamrocks and wild flower sprang up where she walks.
   Brigit married the Fomorian King Bres and had three sons.  The war in which the Tribe of Danu eventually overcame the Fomorians, a tribe of giants, is at the nexus of Irish mythohistory. She sought peace between them, without avail.  When her son Ruadan was killed in battle her grief so moved all that peace came at last.
   An eternal flame is maintained to this day at the Well of Brigit in County Kildare by nineteen maidens.  (Okay, they are nuns.  So we only presume that they are maidens.)  On the twentieth day Brigit tends the flame herself.  The Roman Catholics appropriated the beloved Brigit as a saint.
   Read THE AMERICAN DRUID MONITOR articles on Brigit.  From 1988, click here.  From 2010, click here.

   This is the great, beloved, epic from the Ulster Cycle where the characters, creatures and events of so many other myths come crashing together with humor, pathos and heroism.  It is as intricate and as intertangled as Irish knotwork.  It is full of bull.

   Daire of Cooley's Brown Bull, named Donn. and the White Horned Bull of Connaught, named Findbennach, were magical creatures whose mythic contention has flowed through many ages, adventures and forms.  They had been swineherders, named Grunt and Bristle, for their kings.  They had been friends, and rivals as to who was the better at magic and shape shifting.   Friendly practical joking left both their pig herds skinny, and they lost their jobs, and thus the feud began.  They became hawks, and filled the Sky with noisily bickering for two years. Then they became sea creatures, one a whale the other a seahorse, and fought in the Sea for two years. After that  they shifted into human champions, then transformed into phallic worms who impregnate charmed cows of the immortal Sidhe folk, to be born as the prized, magical and magnificent bulls of our tale.
   One fateful night Queen Madb of Connaught, in bed with her husband, Ailill, had a sit-com like argument over who was on top, wealth-wise.  It was close, but he was ahead by a bull, which is ironic because the White Bull had been born to one of Queen Madb's cows, but did not want to belong to a woman.  Madb decides to borrow the Brown Bull, to best Ailill.  (Unlike American marriages, in Ireland then men could head the house.)
   The Queen offers Daire a little leg to borrow the Brown Bull.  He gets so excited that he starts jumping up and down and he bursts his bed, feathers fly, and by the time all settles down he finds out that she was going to take the bull by force, if she could not get him fairly.  Being Irish, Daire of Caulgne (Cooley) decides he would rather fight than fool around, so war begins between Connaught and Ulster.
   War with Ulster seemed safer than when American President Reagan invaded Granada.  The fighting men of Ulster are under a curse.  Macha is one of triad of war and death fairies, with the Morrígan and Babd.  From another myth, for an injustice done her, she has cursed the fighting men of Ulster, for 3 times 3 generations, to be disabled by the pain of a pregnant woman in labor at all the worst possible times.  Besides, Madb's magician, Calatín, had predicted that she would come back from the war with the bull.  Calatín and his twenty-seven sons (3 times 3 times 3) did not.  This is a separate myth, with a recurring theme from Irish tales, that magic, prophesy, and such can be a seeming boon that is really a bane.
   Kid Cú Chulainn, just 17, is immune to the curse because, unknown to him then, he is the son of the fairy Lugh.  Madb's army gets well into Ulster unchallenged because, instead of guarding the border as he should be, Cú Chulainn is off with a lass, doing what lads of 17 do.  But once he gets to it, the Kid puts up a defense that is, well, epic.  There are a couple dozen, or so, stories within the Táin of Cú Chulainn's various exploits and encounters.  
   He harasses the Connaught army mercilessly from afar with his sling, and at river fords and such challenges their champions to single combat, each of which he wins.  Cú Chulainn is doing a heroic job against the invaders, but they advance anyway.  Queen Madb offers to have sex with him and make him rich if he switches sides, but he turns her down.  They reach sort of a truce that allows her army to advance while he kills off her best men, one at a time.  She really wanted that bull!
   The Morrígan, in the guise of a beautiful maiden, tries to seduce the Kid, and he refuses her too.  Rebuffed, she stalks him.  Waters are the fateful forks in the streams of life and narrative in Irish mythology and the Morrígan attacks Cú Chulainn at a ford in a river, first as an eel who trips him, then as a wolf who drives cattle at him, and third as a heifer who leads a stampede.  Each time he wounds her, and the dark fairy Queen vows and eventually gets revenge.
   The youths of Ulster, who are also unaffected by Macha's curse, decide to go to the aid of their friend Cú Chulainn.  Three times fifty of them march off.  This is ⅓ the youths of Ulster.  King Ailill, seeing the boys from afar, mistakes them for fighting men, so he attacks in ernest.  Alas, all are lost at lia Fáil, the Stone of Destiny.
   In one contest Cú Chulainn is gravely wounded.  The many talented fairy of healing, Lugh Long Arm, appears and puts Cú Chulainn to sleep for 3 days, magically mending his injuries.  He movingly reveals himself to Cú Chulainn as his true father.  Upon awakening Cú Chulainn has been transformed into a horrifying but fearless monster who avenges the boys twice 3 fold times.
   Queen Madb, in desperation, violates the sacred tradition of single combat, and sends several men at Cú Chulainn at the same time, sealing her memory as an unprincipled villainess.  Cú Chulainn fights his foster father, Fergus, but yields to him on the condition that when next they meet it will be Fergus that must yield.  In one sad encounter the hero fights his foster brother and best childhood friend, Ferdiad, who had switched sides.  For 3 days they battle before duty brings Cú Chulainn to slay the brother he so loves.
   Alas, Cú Chulainn and Fergus do meet again, at the head of a great battle, and faithful to his word Fergus yields.  Thus Ulster finally defeats the invading army of Connaught, but Madb gets home with Donn, the Brown Bull of Cooley, and fifty heifers too.  
   But this, you will recall, is the tale of a feud between two swineherds who are now bulls.  Back in Connaught Donn kills the White Bull Findbennach (Whitehorn), tearing him to bits and flinging the pieces to the far corners of Ireland.  Returning to Ulster, Donn vents his rage there too.  So ends the tales of the Cattle Raid of Cooley, Táin Bó Cúailnge.

   Although these tales are orally very much older, the earliest know written versions are Lebor na hUidre (the "Book of the Dun Cow"), from the 11th Century AD, and the Book of Leinster, from the 12th Century AD, both in Old Irish; and The Yellow Book of Lecan, from the 14th Century AD, in Middle Irish.  Táin was translated into English in AD 1904 by Winifred Faraday, AD 1914 by Joseph Dunn, and AD 1969 by Thomas Kinsella, among others.  In AD 2006 Colmán Ó Raghallaigh and Barry Reynolds did the first graphic novel version, in Irish Gaelic.  
   There is a fascinating and beautifully done website that gives the Irish transcription side-by-side with Joseph Dunn's translation.  It is at http://adminstaff.vassar.edu/sttaylor/Cooley/. 

   Click here for a print version of this article.

   Images abound of this horned deity, but little is really known of him.  From the images, like this one from the Gundestrup Cauldron, he is often taken to be a god of animals.  Here he holds a ram-headed serpent in his left hand and a torc in his right, and is surrounded by a boar, a bull, and a stag.  He wears stag horns.

   The name assigned these images, Cernunnos, comes from a single inscription on a relief found within the foundation of Notre-Dame in Paris.  From archeological evidence he is known to be of pre-Celtic origin. 
    He is all but absent from surviving Irish mythology.  Some believe that Conall Cernach, the foster brother of Cú Chulainn, who has a minor role in the Táin Bó Cúailnge, may be the Gaulish Cernunnos.  Because of the horns the Church naturally associated him with their Devil.  As with Brighit, the Church also seems to have inserted his character into the life of St Ciarán of Saighir, one of the 12 Irish Apostles, whose first disciple was a boar, followed by a fox, a badger, a wolf, and a stag.

     There is a Welch tradition associating Cernunnos with Mid-Winter's Night.  He is important to followers of Wicca and neopagan groups that create myth, tradition or ritual where the record is lacking.  He is venerated in the AR*ID sect as the patron of Jägermeister. 

   Cormac the son of Art was also called Cormac of the Long Beard (Ulfada).   He was the 115th Milesian king.  He reigned for 40 years in the 3rd Century AD.  This still well revered king is described in the Annals of Clonmacnoise as "absolutely the best king that ever reigned in Ireland before himself. . .wise learned, valiant and mild, not given causelessly to be bloody as many of his ancestors were, he reigned majestically and magnificently".
   Much of the Fenian Cycle of myths takes place during his time.

   During the last 10 years of his reign he brought Christianity to Ireland and forbade his druids from worshiping the Good Neighbors, the Fairy Cavelcade..

   His name means Chulann's hound because as a boy he killed the fierce watch dog of the smith Chulann in self-defense and had to serve as its replacement.  In the Cattle Raid of Cooley, Táin Bó Cúailnge, he single-handedly defended Ulster from the attack of Queen Madb of Connacht, killing so many that he built a wall of corpses.

   When he rebuffs the advances of The Morrighan, the terrible triple Queen, she thrice attacks him as different animals that he defeated.  Ah!, beware the wrath of a woman scorned!
   In one battle he is wounded and his father, Luge, heals him by magic.  By the contrivance of The Morrighan, in her form of the Crow of death, he is killed.  In his final battle he heroically binds himself to a stone so he can face the enemy even in death.
   As was prophesized his life was short, but his memory will live long, well and valiantly.  Indeed, as prophesized, here you are reading this bit about him.

   Cernunnos is the pan-Celtic horned fairy who in Ireland is The Dagna.  Outside of Irish mythology little is known Cernunnos except that he must have been a major fairy because his images are so plentiful, and so often of great care and skill.  Because of his images he is taken to be a fairy of the forests, animals and virility.

   The Dagna means the "good god."  In Ireland this kind hearted, hard fighting, randy fairy brought good harvests.  He might be thought of as a fairy of food, sex and hearty appetites for both.  He had a magical caldron named Undry, from which such a bounty flowed that no guest ever left unfilled.  It is from this that the later, Christianized legends of the wounded king and his Holy Grail grew.   His sexual exploits were equally endless and pigish.  He is the All Father.  The tales of his eating and romancing are full of humor.
   In battle he carried an eight pronged club.  With one side he could kill nine foe at a blow, with the other he could bring them back to life.  When he dragged it on the ground it marked the boundary between the land of the living and that of the dead.  He also had a living harp of oak named Uaithne on which he played three kinds of music: sorrowful, joyous and dreaming.
   The Dagna is an earth fairy with mastery over magic, time and the seasons.  His mother was Danu, Chieftess of Tuatha Dé Danann, and he became their King.  His home is Brú na Bóinne, the Palace on the River Boyne, now called Newgrange. At the New Year he mates with The Morrighan, and his children include Aongas Mac Óg, Bodb Dearg and the lovely, loved and beneficent fairy Brighit.

   Mother Earth is known as Danu in Irish lore.  She is the fairy Queen, matriarch and chieftess who led her tribe, the Tuatha Dé Danann to Ireland, and then burned the boats so they would not be tempted to return.  She is revered, under assorted names, across Keltic Europe.  The River Danube is named for her.

   In Ireland she is remembered as a fairy of wells and rivers, fertility and abundance, and magic and wisdom.  She resides now in the Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth.

   Helen of Troy is the Greek Deirdre.  Her tragic tale is told in the Ulster Cycle of myths.  Before she was born her father was told “Well, I saw in my second sight that it is on account of a daughter of yours that the greatest amount of blood shall be shed that has ever been shed in Érin since time and race began. And the three most famous heroes that ever were found will lose their heads on her account.”

   It was argued that the baby should be killed.  But the king of Ulster decided to ignore the druid's warning, and turned Deirdre over to a wise woman named Leabharcham to be raised.  When Deirdre came of age she would wed the king himself.
   Leabharcham took Deirdre to raise, protected from all outside, in  a mound until at 16 she was a "creature of fairest form, of loveliest aspect, and of gentlest nature that existed between earth and heaven in all Ireland".  In a dream Deirdre met Naois, and  Allen and Arden his two brothers, who were Knights of the Red Branch.  She fell in love with the handsome, black Irishman Naois.  She begged Leabharcham to help her find Naois, the man of her dream.  When they did meet in the waking world they fell deeply in love, married, ran off to hide from the king in Scotland, and had one narrow escape there after another.
   The king of Ulster sent his Knight Fergus mac Róich to them with an invitation home.  But the king was not a man of his word and he had Naois and his two brothers killed; the three foretold hero's heads were lost.  Killing Knights is horrible enough, but the king had caused Fergus to dishonor himself and cause the death of brother Knights.  Fergus and his band went to Connacht where they fought against Ulster in the Cattle Raid of Cooley.
   The tragedy's end is told in different ways.  In one telling, Deirdre commits suicide by leaning out of a chariot to smash her head into a rock, but in another she dies of grief on the body of Naois, her love.
    For a wonderfully translated telling of the complete myth click here. 

   Dian Cécht (the leech) is the physician to the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu, and the grandfather of Lugh.  He had a magic well named Slade that could cure any wound save decapitation. 

   Dian Cécht made a silver arm for the King Nuada, but when his son, Miach, made a better arm of gold, Dian Cécht killed him out of envy.  Dian Cécht's daughter, Airmed, cried over her brother's grave, and from her tears all the healing herbs grew, and she made a catalogue of all they could heal.  But Dian Cécht was jealous of this too, and also killed his daughter.  That is why no mortal knows all the herbs of medicine.
   There is much more at the wonderful Mary Jones website. 

   Diarmuid was a mortal of the County Kerry race Duibhne.  He was the most handsome, brave, and fearsome warrior in the Fianna, and another hapless, innocent, tragic victim of the eternal triangle.  His father was mortal, but he was raised by the love fairy Aeongas mac Óg.

   As a young man he was on a quest with two others when they encountered an old hag, an Cailleach, at a ford in the woods who begged their aid in crossing.  The two others refused, but Diarmuid carried the old woman across.  She, of course, was magical, and as a reward she placed a spot on on his forehead that made him irresistible to women.  Alas, the hag was none other that The Morigan, and her gifts always come at a terrible price.
   Now Gráinne was the daughter of the High King, Cormac mac Airt, and she was an enchanting, comely, and wily lass who had rejected many suitors.  She finally agreed to wed Fionn mac Cumhaill, the leader of the Fianna, but at their betrothal party she fell in love with Diarmuid at first sight, and he with her.  But Diarmuid refused to go off with Gráinne out of loyality to his leader, Fionn.  Gráinne used a magic potion to put the entire party to sleep, except Diarmuid, and on him she placed a geis that he must accompany her.
   A geis is a kind of spell that has a boom, an obligation, and a prohibition, all three.  Diarmuid had another geis from his foster father, Angus mac Óg, that he could not hunt boar. 
   Diarmuid and Gráinne went off together but after Diarmuid refused her entreats for a long while she finally tricked him into marriage.  Diarmuid's foster father, Aeongas mac Óg, saved the couple from the Fianna many times over the years, and eventually convinced Fionn to forgive the hero and faithful warrior.  They returned to the Fianna, were given land, had four sons, and lived happily for many years. 
   It came to pass one day, on a hunt, that Diarmuid was tricked by Fionn into a place where he had to break one geis or the other; like Ulysses between Scylla and Charybdis.  He ended up killing a boar, which turned out to be his own enchanted half-brother!  It broke Aeongus' geis, and Diarmuid was, as prophesied,  mortally wounded.  Now Finn mac Cumhaill had many magical gifts, and one was that water from his hands could heal any wound.  Twice he pretended to bring healing waters to the gored Diarmuid, but he let the water trickle between his fingers.  At the beseechings of his grandson, Oscar, Finn brought the healing waters to the fallen hero.  But it was too late.  He was dead.

   He is the death faery who welcomes his decedents, the Irish, to Tech Duinn, the House of Donn, when they die.  There he prepares them for Manannán mac Lir to take them to the Otherworld.  He is a creator of storms and shipwrecks, but also a protector of crops and cattle.  Although associated by the Church with the Devil, he is well remembered and often invoked by the Irish folk to this day. 

     A druid's foot is a badge, jewel of office, or talisman worn by a druid in pretty much the same way a Catholic priest wears a crucifix.  In pre-Christian Ireland the druid's foot would have been of serpentine with a 'natural' hole in it; that is, a hole made by dripping water.

    When the legends of Saint Patrick claim that he 'drove the snakes out of Ireland' they are ridiculing the druids by referring to them as 'snakes' because of these serpentine emblems.  Ireland has never had any native snakes.
     Serpentine is the state rock of California.  Various New Age beliefs attribute an assortment of benefits to the use or wearing of serpentine.  We do not know if any of these go back to Iron or Bronze Ireland.
     The online game World of Warcraft uses an inverted pentagram for a druid's foot.  This is probably from Wicca.  The use of pentagrams by pre-Christian Irish druids is not supported by archeology or ethnography.  The one place where 5-fold symmetry did regularly find its way into druidic ritual was in the use of flowers that are common in Ireland, such as the shamrock flower, violets, and, of course, the wild Irish rose.

   A fian is a member of a band of adventurers, soldiers of fortune, or bandits who are mostly landless, often aristocrats, and that usually live off of the land.  Robin Hood and his Merrie Men would have been a fíanna if they had been Irish.  The Fenian Cycle of myths is mostly about the Fianna and Fionn mac Cumhaill who, like his father, Cumhaill, became the leader of the Fianna.  They took a triple vow to purity of heart, strength of limb, and action to match their words.

   Fianna Fáil is an Irish Republican Party, both in the sense that it fostered the creation of the Irish Republic, and that it is imbibed with the European Republican triple ideals of liberty, fraternity, and equality.  It was founded in 1926 AD from Sinn Féin and so really dates to the republic declared by the Rising of Easter 1916 AD.  It led every government of the Republic until 2011.  The party usually translates its name, Fianna Fáíl, as 'Soldiers of Destiny.'   To go to the party's website click here. 

 

   Fionn (Blond) mac Cumhaill was a giant, invincible warrior, and the greatest leader of the Fianna.  Most of the Fenian Cycle of myths are about the adventures of Fionn and the Fianna. 
   Fionn's father, Cumhaill, kidnapped his mother, Muirne, the daughter of a powerful druid.  For this Cumhaill was outlawed by the High King, Conn Cétchathach.  He joined the Fianna and became their leader.  Cumhaill was killed by Goll mac Morna, who then became the leader of the Fianna.

   Fionn mac Cumaill was raised by Bodhmall, his mother's sister and a druidess.  He had many magical qualities.  As a boy he was cooking the 'Salmon of Wisdom' and burnt his thumb.  After that whenever he stuck his thumb in his mouth he had access to 'All knowledge.'  Fionn also means 'brilliant,' both for the hair and the thumb of wisdom.
   When Finn was 23 he killed the monster, fire-breathing, evil Faerie Aillen.  His reputation as a warrior and a hero thereby established, Goll then ceded leadership of the Fianna. 
   One of his sons was Oisín.  Fionn built the Giant's Causeway and the Isle of Mann so that he could walk to Scotland.  Even the greatest hero's of Irish Gaelic mythology have human dark-sides, and as an old man he let his rival in love die in the tale of Diarmuid and the boar.
   According to legend, Fionn mac Cumaill is not dead.  He and the Fianna are asleep, under the city of Dublin, ready to awake to battle in the time of Éire's greatest need.  Some argue that their spirit is awake in the IRA and has been since the Rising of Easter, 1916 AD. 

   Goibhniu is the divine smith of Irish myth.  He is one of a triad of faerie craftsmen, together with his brothers Luchtaine the wright and Creidhne the metal worker, who made weapons for Lugh and the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu.  Goibhni forged the heads, Luchtaine fashioned the shafts, and Creidhne the rivits.  None survived a wound from their charmed weapons.

   Goibhniu is linked in tales to Dian Cécht (the leech) because he  also has the power to impart vitality, youth and immortality.  He hosts Fledh Ghoibhnenn, the Feast of Goibhniu, in the Otherworld, where those who drank his charmed mead became exempt from age and decay.  This is another character in Irish mythology with nearly identical analogy in Hindu mythology. 

   Ireland's ancient harp is its most recognized national symbol.  It is on the Republic's coat of arms, the President's standard, the flag of Leinster, and bottles of Guinness. 
   The harp has been the accompaniment to Irish poets, bards, and courtesans of every sort for kings, nobles, and all since time out of memory.  The boy David soothed the troubled King Saul with a harp.

   The Dagda, the magical, jovial, over-sexed All-Father and Good God of Irish Gælic mythology had a magical, oaken, battle-scared harp, decorated with a double-headed fish with jewels for eyes.  It was named Uaithne.  With it The Dagda summonsed the change of the four seasons, and could even command the rising or setting of the sun. 
   At the Second Battle of Mag Tuiread Uaithne was captured by King Bres and the Formerians.  As they were feasting in celebration, The Dagda and his son stole quietly into their hall.  He called his harp to him, and on its way it killed 3x3 of the enemy.  The Dagda then used Uaithne to play the 3 strains of Noble music:  First he played goltrai that makes all who hear it weep and mourn and grieve.  Then he played geantrai which brings joy and mirth and laughter.  Finally he played suantrai which put all into a deep and still and blissful sleep.  Then The Dagda and Aeogus mac Óg left as quietly as they had come with the prized harp, Uaithne.

Imbolc

   Imbolc is one of the four great ritual holidays in the turning of the Irish calendar.  It comes midway between the Winter solstice and the Spring equinox, and is dedicated to the fairy, Brighit, who is mistress of Sun light, heat and fire.  It falls on February 1st or 2nd.  Traditionally the farmer folk watch to see if badgers and such come out of their dens, signaling an early Spring.  Lacking Irish badgers, Americans make do with ground hogs.
   Read THE AMERICAN DRUID MONITOR article on Imbolc.  Click here.

   Leprechauns, or little chaps, are wee fairy folk who mend shoes by trade and hoard gold in earnest.  They are not half bad, but they are certainly not half good.  Catch one and he will grant you 3 wishes to let him go.  But be careful what you wish for because they are tricksters with a mean sense of humor, and the wishes they grant mostly go awry.  
 

   Lugh (pronounced Lu) Long-Arm, the fairy of many talents,  is a fairy King of light, the harvest, healing, and is the patron fairy of druids.  He was a High King on Tara.  He gave the Irish folk the gift of agriculture.  The harvest festival, about August 1st, is called Lughnasadh for him, and is one of the four great annual Druidic celebrations. 

   Lugh's mother was Ethliu, daughter of the evil Formorian King Balor, and his father was Cian, a fairy of crafts and magic, from the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu.  Luge was a valiant warrior whose sling was the Milky Way.  In his left hand he wields the magical, bloodthirsty, living spear Areadbharand, for which he is known as Lugh Long-Arm.  He fought with his fearsome war hound Failinis.
   As a boy Lugh was the hero of the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh where he killed his grandfather Balor and brought final victory to the Tribe of Danu.
   Lugh is a fairy of many talents.  To gain entrance to the court of the High King Nuada he told the doorkeeper that he is a wright, a smith, an artist, a champion, a harpist, a hero, a poet, a historian, a sorcerer, a cupbearer, and a brazier.
   Read THE AMERICAN DRUID MONITOR article on Lugh.  Click here.
 

Lughnasadh

   Lughnasadh is the harvest fair, celebrated around August 1st, that celebrates Lugh's gift of agriculture to the Irish folk.  It marks the change of season to Celtic Fall.  In myth, the Faerie Folk of Mag Mal wanted to keep the harvest for themselves, but Lugh fought them and won.  It is one of the four great Druidic holidays in the turning of a year.  The fairs include horse racing, games skill and war-craft, and farmer's markets that would be familiar at any county fair in America, except with more alcohol.
   Read THE AMERICAN DRUID MONITOR article on Lugh.  Click here.

  There were two battles at Mag Tuired producing two great, epic, poetic sagas.  In the first the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu, defeated the Fir Blogs, the big belly boys.  In the second they defeat the Fomorians, a tribe of giants.  Mag Tuired is a plane in Connach, and means the pillars or the towers.  Place names and characters in J.R.R. Tolkiens' Lord of the Rings cycle often seem to have been inspired by Celtic mythology, and none more so that the 'Two Towers.'

   Manannán the son of the Sea, is the fairy King of the Isle of Man, which he built to make it easy to walk to Scotland.  But is himself a seafarer and not really a fairy of the seas.  His boat, Wave Sweeper, could sails itself, which was a much bigger deal in the Iron and Bronze Age than it seems now.  In some myths he has a chariot that he can drive on the sea, and in others he has a horse, Enbarr of the Flowing Mane,  that can stride over the waves as easily as the land.

   Manannán is a law giver in Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu, but appears in some myths to have predated their arrival in Ireland.  He is a necromancer who conjures the weather at sea and uses the mists to hide himself and the Otherworld from view.  He is the conductor fairy who takes the dead to Tír na nÓg, the Island of Youth in the Otherworld.  He carries his Crane Bag filled with magic.  It is a caldron of regeneration for the old, the injured and the diseased.  He is analogous to the Greek god Charon, who ferries souls across the River Styx to Hades.  Cultural views of death can be inferred from the difference between Tír na nÓg and Hades.  
   Manannán is in many myths.  He is often a trickster whose tricks go awry, but all works out well in the end, as in the Tale of Manannán at Play.  In another myth he gave Lugh four gifts as the boy set out to defend his Tribe against the Fomorians: a magical cloak, breastplate, his horse, and his sword named Fragarash, the Answerer.  In yet another myth he gave the magical Goblet of Truth to Cormac mac Airt, a historical figure oft revered at the kindest, wisest and most just High King of Ireland.  Manannán's wife, the fairy Fane, is a temptress of Cú Chulainn in the Cattle Raid of Cooley, but in other myths his wife is the fairy Áine.  He is also prominent in the Tale of the Voyage of Bran son of Febail, in the Cycle of the Kings.
   Manannán had a herd of magical swine.  Just like The Dagda, one was always fattening and one always roasting, that gave the aos Sídhe, the Faery People, these druidic heros, goddesses and gods, their immortal-like longevity.  Magical pigs sacrificed to the fairies form a common mythical theme that links Ireland to Japan, and most in between, with the Neolithic practices of Melanesia, as is so elegantly and eloquently shown by mythologist Joseph Campbell in The Masks of God.
   When Saint Brendan, a baptized Christian, sailed to new worlds in about the 5th Century AD, he had set out to find the Blessed Isles, the Island of the Apple Trees, the Land of the Living, and Tír na nÓg, in our pagan Otherworld.
 

   Mog Roith is the one-eyed god of the Sky by some accounts, and of the Sun by others.  He is of the Fir Blog people, and is probably left from the myths of the Irish folk before the coming of Celtic culture in the 1st Millennium BCE.  In some tales he is a druid, and in Medieval (post-Christian) stories he is a mortal.

   His name suggests "Master of the Wheel," or maybe its servant.  His chariot is named "Roith Ramach," meaning "rowing wheel."  He wears the hide of a hornless bull, and has a magic head dress named "Encennach" which changes him into a bird.  His chariot is as bright as the Sun, but his shield is black and covered with the stars of Night.  He brings the turning of the seasons, can raise storms, and even dry up lakes.  He is prominent in the Cormac Cycle, in the Cycle of the Kings, in  the Battle of Knocklong.  He has a daughter named Tlachta, who is a great sorceress. 
   In tales of Medieval origin he is depicted as the druid who cut of the head of John the Baptist, and thus brought a curse on the Irish folk, and as a confederate of Simon Magnus, the sage of Christian Gnostics and demon of Roman Christians. 
   The Sky as a wheel turning about the North Star is a natural mythological link at Ireland's Northern latitudes, and the wheel as a metaphor for the repeating cycles of seasons is understandable in any culture that has invented the wheel.  But the wheel of the year (shown) may be a modern growth of mythic tradition by Wicca and some neo-pagans.  Depicting it with 8 spokes instead of 4 is short on evidence also.  The 4 major druidic holidays that are well documented are Samhain (Halloween), Imbolc (St. Bridgit's Day and Groundhog Day), Beltain (May Day), and Lughnasadh (county fairs). 
   Read THE AMERICAN DRUID MONITOR article on Mog Roith.  Click here. 
 

   The Morrigan, the Great Queen, the Phantom Queen and the Monster Queen and her sisters Babd and Macha, are a triple Fairy Queen.  They are mistresses of war, magic and prophesy.  The Morrigan's animal form is a crow, and thus she appears as the fairy of death in battle.

   It was by her valor, future sight and druid's magic that Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu, defeated the Fir Blogs in the first battle of Mag Tuired.  That the Celtic war diety is female, and not male, says a lot about the deep cultural chasm between bronze age Keltic folk and their Greco-Roman, Levantian and Egyptian contemporaries.
   More than with most Irish mythic characters, the tales and personas of The Morrighan vary from time to time and place to place.  As a cattle fairy she reigns over property, sovereignty and fertility.  But as fairy of death in battle she transforms into crows, bansees, and the death eaters of the Harry Potter cycle.
 

   Newgrange is the 2nd most famous Stone Age structure in the world, after Stonehenge.  It is a passage tomb overlooking the beautiful River Boyne Valley.

   At 5½ millennia this mid-Neolithic structure is older that the Bronze Age pyramids of Egypt.  It is about 250 feet across, 40 feet high, and covers over an acre.  The only known entrance faces the Midwinter sunrise, when a pencil thin beam of light shines through a transom to the burial chamber almost in the center.  It was rediscovered in AD 1699 while digging for road paving stones.
   Mythologically it is variously the home the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu, and The Dagna, the Good God.  Brú na Bóinne is probably best translated as the Palace by the Boyne.  Legend also held it as the burial place of the first High Kings on Tara. 
   Some lost religious significance is suspected by the grouping of 3 giant passage tombs in the Boyne Valley, at Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth; as with the grouping of the 3 great pyramids in Egypt.
 

   Ogma is a fairy of eloquence and learning.  He invented the druids' secret Ogham alphabet.  He is in a triad of 'gods of skill,' trí dée dána, with Lugh and The Dagda.  In some myths he is a Fomorian who allied himself with the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu, but in others is the son of Danu.  We cannot ask him because he fought in both Battles of Mag Tuired and was killed in the second.
 

   Oisín is Ireland's greatest poet of legendary times.  Much of the Fenian Cycle of myths are about his adventures, and they are told in his voice.  His father was Fionn mac Cumhail, leader of the Fianna, and Sadbh, a young beauty of Fionn's tribe who had been changed into a deer by a druid's magic.  One day Fionn and his men were hunting in the woods when his hounds chased down a particularly beautiful and fleet doe, but once they had her cornered, the dogs could not hurt her.  As is supposed to happen in faerie tales, Fionn's love changed Sadbh back into human form and they were married, but they did not live happily ever after!

   When the druid found out what had happened he changed Sadbh back into a deer.  Fionn pursued his love tirelessly.  When she delivered a foal it was a human baby.  Fionn finally found his son on Ben Bulben, a majestic rocky outcrop in County Sligo.  The baby was named Oisín, which means 'young deer.'
   Of all of Oisín's adventures the best known is of the golden haired girl and their romance in the land of youth.  One day Oisín and the Fianna were hunting in the woods when he met Níamh Chinn Óir, the daughter of Manannán mac Lir, riding her father's horse Embarr.  Her beauty was enchanting and Oisín fell madly in love.  Forgetting his wife, family, and men Oisín joined her, and on Embarr's back they rode over the Seas to Tir na nÓg, the land of eternal youth.  He had a wonderful time with her for a while in that mythic paradise, but after a time he began to miss his men, the woods, and the adventures.  After much pleading he was allowed to go home for a visit.  Alas, time does not pass in the Otherworld as it does for mortals, and what had seemed but a few months to Oisín was 3 centuries in mortal time.  He was warned not to dismount or touch the ground of the mortal world or all those years would catch up with him.
   There are several versions told of what happened, but in all of them Oisín is trying to help someone and inadvertently does touch the ground.  The years do catch up with him and he becomes a very, very old man.  In some tellings he dies. 

   The Wanderings of Oisin is an epic length poem by William Butler Yeats.  It is told as a dialogue between Saint Patrick and Oisín, after he has returned from the Otherworld and is dying of his caught-up years.  In Yeats' telling, Oisín had spent 100 years in pleasure on the Island of Dancing, where "joy is God, and God is joy;" a 100 years fighting a demon on the Island of Victory; and a 100 years in slumber on the Island of Forgetfulness.  Alas, however, none were, for Oisín, the Island of Content. 
   Yeats uses Oisín's voice to paint a romantic paean of Ireland's pagan past, while Saint Patrick seems cheerless, taciturn and mean-spirited.  Yeats says of one pagan god "... at his cry there came no milk-pale face / Under a crown of thorns and dark with blood, / But only exultant faces." 
   On his return Oisín finds the Fenians --  all his friends and loved ones -- long dead, but he remembers them as much larger, happier and better looking that the folks of Christian time.  He rejects Saint Patrick's repeated entreats to pray for his soul, and dies determined to "... dwell in the house of the Fenians, be they in flames or at feast." 
   Click here to read the whole poem. 

   Halloween in America is the most widely recognized Irish pagan imported holiday.  Samhain in Old Irish means 'summer's end,' and specifically refers to November 1st, although this harvest festival which starts in the Irish calendar on the night of October 31st.  The parties can go on for  a week.  It is the mirror image of the Beltran festival, and evil witches again gain control of the weather.  

   It is a time when the boundary between the living and the dead draws thin, perhaps because crops are dying, orchards going bare, and animals preparing for winter.  While there are always those among the dead that folks are anxious to contact, evil ghosts are just as free to return.  Masks and costumes are used to hide ones identity from the bad spirits.  In Ireland turnips were hallowed out and used as lanterns to keep those scary wraiths away.  Pumpkins as jack-o-lanterns are used by Americas, whose noses turn up at turnips.  Samhain Night marks the beginning of the Irish month of Samhain.  It is one of the four great, cross-quarter festivals in each year's turning.
 

  Lia Fáil (Irish Gaelic for 'Big Stone') was placed on the Hill of Tara by the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu.  It choose the rightful king of Ireland by roaring mightily, until it was split asunder by Cú Chulainn.

   This Stone of Destiny is not to be confused with any other Stone of Destiny, such of the Stone of Scone which choose the rightful king of Scotland until it was stolen by the English, or the Stone of Mora that choose the rightful king of Sweden, or the biblical Stone of Jacob.  This is the real mythological Stone of Destiny. 
   Sexual mores were different in pagan Ireland.  Most Christians today pretend that they do not notice the Stone's phallic shape.
 

   Irish mythic history begins with the arrival of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Tribe of Danu, from the North in flying ships on a May 1st, Beltran, long, long ago.  Their Chieftess Danu burns the ships because they are there to stay.  First they conquer the Fir Bolg, the Big Bellied Boys, in the First Battle of Mag Tuired, who retreat to the West.  Next they battle to submission the Formorians, a race of giants, in the Second Battle of Mag Tuired.  

   They brought to the Hill of Tara the Stone of Destiny, Lia Fáil, which chooses the kings of Ireland; the inescapable Sword of Núadu; the bloodthirsty, living Spear of Lugh; and Undry, the forever full Caldron of The Dagna, that none should ever go hungry.
   These fierce, magical, fairy folk are finally defeated, however, by the Milesians who arrive in ships from the South.  They retreat to the Otherworld, Tír na nÓg, the land of eternal youth, entered through the mounds that are so much a part of the Irish landscape, especially Brugh na Boinne, called Newgrange in English.  Since then they are known as 'aes Sídhe', the mound folk, and also as the fair folk and the good neighbors.
   There are marvelous tales to go with all of these events, each as intricate and complicated as that beautiful Irish knotwork.  Not that it matters to the telling of a good story, but Newgrange, which is older than the pyramids of Egypt,  pre-dates the actual arrival of the Celts by probably 2,500 years.
 

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