Celtic Mythology:
The Lebor Gabala: "The Book of Quests".
268 years after the flood, 24 men and 24 women led by Partholon to Ireland. No trees or grass were on the island, but there were three lakes and nine rivers. Seven new lakes were formed and four plains were cleared. 300 years later there 5,000 people were killed by an epidemic. They knew of gold, brewing and beer. Owned cauldrons, domesticated cattle, law giving and rituals. Fought the Fomorians, a race of demons, who were monstrous, hideous and had supernatural powers.
30 years after the epidemic, the people of Nemed cleared 12 new plains and formed new lakes. Another epidemic and the Nemed become vassals of the Fomorians. Gave 2/3rd of children, corn and milk. They killed Conann and other Fomorian followers and the Nemed fled the country.
Then came the Fir Bolg, the Fir Gaileoin and the Fir Domnann (Belgae, Gauls, Dumnonii). Then came the Tuatha de Danann, who battled the Fir Bolg at Mag Tuireadh. Tuatha de Danann was victorious. The Fir Bolg had the province of Connacht, and the Tuatha had the rest of the island, their capital at Tara. The Fomorians disputed the claim to Tara, and after an attempted alliance, there was a battle at Mag Tuireadh.
Nuada Argatlam, the king of the Tuatha, lost his right hand in the battle and abdicated the throne. Bres, the son of a Fomorian father, becomes king. He married Brigit, the daughter of Dagada, a Tuatha chieftain. Bres imposed excessive taxes. Cairbre, the principal bard of the Tuatha, satirized Bres and boils appeared on his face. He abdicates the throne. After seven years a war is fought with magical weapons. Lug admitted into the tribe by Nuada. Fomorians are defeated at the second battle of Mag Tuireadh or Moytura the Northern. Lug killed Balor, the Fomorian champion, by hurling a sling stone into his one enormous eye. Next came the sons of Mil, the Milesians. They defeat the Tuatha and they make peace.
The invasions and peoples might not be accurate. The Partholon was an eclipsed cult. The Fomorians were the ritual practices of the early inhabitants who refused change. Balor's enormous eye could be a type of sun worship that was replaced by another form of worship. The Belgae, Dumninii and Gauls are real Celtic tribes. The Tuata were superhuman, the pre-Christian gods of the Celts that were dispossessed by the Christians, or the Milesians.
The four magical treasures: the cauldron of Dagda, the spear of Lug, the sword of Nuada and the Stone of Fal, which cried aloud when stepped on by the lawful king of Ireland. The royal palace of Tara was inhabited by Lug.
Eochaid MacEire: a king of the Fir Bolg, supposedly married Tailtiu, the earth goddess.
Manannan Mac Lir: a sea god or lord of the sea was a king of the Island of Man.
Tir na Noc: the Celtic underworld.
Dagda or Eochaid Ollathair (father of all): He was a god of the Tuatha.
Ruad Ro-fhessa: Lord of perfect knowledge. Gross, ugly potbellied and coarse. He had a huge club mounted on wheels that dragged on earth and caused furrows. One end of club killed, the other end gave life. He was the lord of life and death. Had great cauldron. He was a fertility god and a god of the Tuatha. The harpists called in the season.
Lug: Lamfhada (of the long arm) Samildanach (the many skilled). He was a carpenter, smith, warrior, harpist, poet, historian, hero and sorcerer. Lug was a Tuatha god with spear and sling. Worshipped in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Gaul, Ireland.
Ogma � champion of Irish mythology
Cuchuliann � another champion
Cernunnos � was a deer-horned warrior, also associated with the ram. Three heads could change shape. Dated to 4th c. B.C. in Italy and Ireland
Gobriu � the brewer of beer
Nuada Artgatlam � Chieftain god of Tuath.
Dian Checht � the leech that made a silver hand for Nuada. It was a god of the Tuatha.
Esus � A woodcutter worshipped c. 1 century A.D. Worshipped in northeastern Gaul.
Danu � daughter of Dagda A Tuatha goddess
Brigit (St. Brigid or bride in Christianinty) � a Tuatha goddess
Emain Macha � was a goddess and an eponymous deity of the region of Ulster. May be pre-Celtic. She was the wife of Nemed.
Medb � was a goddess of Connaght.
Rhiannon � was a Welsh goddess (and the title of a song by Fleetwood Mac).
There were also goddesses for horses, mothers and protectors of the dead.
Druids priests � presided over the feast of Samain (Nov) Beltine (May) Samain (when Nemed gave the 2/3rd to the Fomorians). There were human sacrifices to Crom Cruach (the monolithic monster) and the terrifying ritual of Samain.
Caesar was in Gaul for ten years. Celts worshipped Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter and Minerva and believed in descent from Dis Pater. Has Celtic title for Roman gods.
Lucan in his 'Pharsalia' � Celtic idols were Teutates, Esus and Taranis that were honored with drowning, hanging and burning sacrifices. It has been suggested that the Celts worshipped a single omni-competent god. The boar was the principal cult animal
Bradb Catha � raven of the battle
Epona � was a horse goddess, her cult from Spain to East Europe, northern Italy to Britain.
Donn � was lord of the dead with a kingdom in Irish mythology. Three red horsemen rode for the kingdom of Donn.
Mongfhinn � was a sorceress for common people.
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Prehistoric Ireland � Celtic and Iberian: Cornwall, Wales and Scottish Highlands � the oldest Celtic stocks known as the "Celtic fringe". Most are pre-Celtic. The Irish Celts are latecomers � tall, fair or red-haired to Ireland a few hundred years before Julius Caesar. Before Celts � dark-haired people 1,000's of years before "Red Celts". Matthew Arnold's poem "Dark Iberians".
Celtic presence felt in the last centuries B.C. The Pre-Celtic people were of millennial antiquity. Celtic invaders had strange language, advanced art and warfare and an exotic religion. Ireland not peopled throughout the lengthy Paleolithic period. Roving fishermen and fowlers from Scotland and possibly elsewhere came to explore. The remains of their wattle huts date to 7,000-4,000 B.C. They journeyed west, central and east, the south unoccupied. The first Irish were fishers, then farmers. North and west Irish have blood group O, from the pre-Celtic peoples in high proportion. Potteries of "Sandhills" were left by the people of the late Neolithic period (c. 2,500-1,800). Skin covered curraghs (small fishing boat), and stone clubs and tools.
The Ernai �stocky, dark-haired. They were hunters and fishers with placid dispositions. Then came the tall, red-haired and blue-eyed peoples from the German forest who were tattooed with painted faces, (as the Picts of Scotland). They were gamblers, hunters, horse riders and sports men, with a well-organized matriarchal society. Then came the Celtic Gauls and then the Normans.
Mid 4th millennium �Neolithic settlements in forest clearings in Ulster uplands at Ballynagilly, rectangular timber houses dated 3,280 B.C. Farmers and stock-raisers, pottery, flint arrowheads, woodman's axe of polished stone. They raised cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. They acquired wheat and barley from the Mediterranean. These new Irish of were of Mediterranean Iberian stock.
Before the end of the 4th millennium they built megalithic monuments, the court-graves at Ulster and north Connacht. From last quarter of 4th millennium and first half of the 3rd gallery chambers were built, which contain domestic debris. Debris also found in burial chambers and pagan shrines. Megalithic tombs, about 1,250, found mostly in Northern Ireland. Passage-graves (north coast) were built about 2,500-2,000 B.C. 300 remain, as do the court-graves (northwest), Portal-dolmens and wedge-graves The implication that these megaliths were Celtic and stained with blood of Druidic sacrifices is wrong. 150 in existence, and are late Neolithic, Burials contained native tool-kits and Sandhills pottery. The court-graves in hillside dolmens are at lower elevations and near water. Sub-megalithic cist under a round barrow is also a grave of Neolithic date. Burials containing tools and heavy-rimmed pottery have been found in the lowland.
Wedge-graves and portal dolmens in the southwest. Court-graves and wedge-graves 2,000 B.C. (also on northwest France) maintained influence. Cremation or burials were both practiced. Stone circles raised in the Bronze Age throughout the early Iron Age. Earthen ring banks associated with the circles were for ceremony.
Ogham stones�4th through 6th c. Ogham-inscribed commemorative pillar for the dead, late pagan and early Christian times. Ogham script is based on Latin alphabet, was invented in Ireland and was the first steps towards literacy. Also found in Isle of Man, Scotland, Cornwall, Devon and South Wales shows Irish migration after Roman departure from England.
Early metal age�the Bronze Age:
2,000 B.C. import tin to make bronze (10% tin to copper). Beaker-folk made axes, spearheads, daggers, etc. Exported axes from northwest Ireland to Britain and continent. Ornaments of gold: Sun-discs and collars were sent to Scotland Denmark, Cornwall and France. Dainty earrings and hooped ear-rings to East Mediterranean. Gold crafted from 18 c. B.C. to 8 c. A.D. Silver also crafted from 18 c. A.D. Late Bronze Age, 900 B.C. onward, new and more efficient types of tools and weapons and new methods for armed combat for accentuating war.
Crannogs were artificial islands for ritual deposits of possessions, Celtic-Gaul inspired for offerings to springs and lakes. Celtic influence in late Bronze Age (600-200 B.C.)
Celtic language spread across Europe (700-500 B.C.) from their cradle north of the Alps. Brought oats to Ireland around this time. Ireland was know as Ierne in 7th c B.C. by Celts and Hibernia in Latin. Possibly named after the Ernai.
7-3 centuries B.C.: Celts from northwest Germany and Netherlands moved across Europe. Tall, red-haired and blue-eyed Celts arrived from the German forest. Tattooed and painted (as the Picts who were in Scotland). The first of the big invasions occurred in 600 BC, the Gaels or goidels (still in Ireland and Scotland). Second invasion was of the Cymri and Brithons (Wales and Britain).
The Belgae and other tribes found by Caesar were related to the Gauls of France 387 B.C. Celts sacked Rome and others to Spain and Balkans and Britain. Gaelic and Welsh are variations of Celt and Iberian. Each new Celtic invasion killed, subdued or chased earlier Iberians and Celts who sought refuge in northwest mountains.
Celts (all from the same race) came from Belgium, Holland and northwest Germany. 1st c. A D Teutons form east Germany moved into the vacated areas. Gwyddel, Goidel and Gael were names of some Celtic peoples. The Celts in Northern Ireland who were to be known as Scots, called themselves F�ni. In the 5th and 6th c. Celtic leaders were called reges.
A large mound dedicated to the pagan goddess Emain Macha, 60 yards across and 6 yards high. At Ulster, reputed to be the burial mound of Queen Macha. Founded in 3rd c. B.C. and abandoned in circa 332-333 A.D. after being destroyed by men of Connaght according to tales. Scientists date it to 7th c. B.C. to 2nd c. B.C. Skull of Barbary ape found. In 150 B.C. the whole structure burned and was buried under limestone boulders and sod.
A single dwelling house was known as a chochan. A Tuath was a tribe or a tiny kingdom. An underground structure for food storage or refuge was known as a souterrain.
200 B.C. to 400 A.D. The Early or pagan Celtic and Druids: Their traditions and language were similar to that of India. At this time paganism and Christianity were combined.
Ptolemy's map in 2 c. B.C.: Pretannic Islands and the British Isles. Belgae in the 1st c. B.C. from northeast. Gaul to southeast Britain and later to Ireland.
From Christianity to the end of the Vikings:
The Ui Neill dynasty: Claim of the high kingship was linked to the territorial possession of (the sacred hill of) Tara, in county Meath.
From 2 millenium B.C.: There were ringed forts there and it was the place where pre-Christian kings were crowned. Principal claimants were the Ui Neill, who were the descendants of Niall, the father of Loegaire. 7th c. Columba was eligible for the kingship of Tara, but became missionary. The Ui Neill was the most powerful kingdom 6th c. covering north and central Ireland. In 859 the high king of Ireland was Maelsechnaill, prince of the Ui Neill.
