DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

Anu : Mother Goddess and Earth Goddess. Her name is sometimes Ana, or Dana, or Danu. The Tuatha dé Danaan are one of the ‘races’ or ‘peoples’ of ancient Ireland. God-like, their leaders are, in effect, the Gods of Ireland. Generally regarded nowadays as benign and the ‘powers of light’, their name Tuatha dé Danann is translated as meaning ‘People of the Goddess Anu’. While one automatically assumes one’s Gods to be benign, evidence for the nature of the dé Danaan is not conclusive. While the Irish-language word tuath does mean ‘people’ or ‘tribe’, it can also mean ’sinister, perverse, malign, evil’. The word ‘tuathal’ implies spell-making and witchcraft, and the conjuring up of sinister forces.

In one of the most ancient of the Irish manuscripts there is a description of Anu, along with her two ’sisters’ Badb and Macha, as ‘na ban tuathige’, meaning ‘the sinister women’. In one of his battles the Hero Cuchulainn was supported by entities associated with Anu. ‘Ra gairester imme baccanaig, ocus bananagaig, ocus geniti glinni, ocus Demna aeoir’. ‘The satyrs, and sprites, and maniacs of the valleys, and demons of the air shouted about him. . .’ None of this sounds particularly ‘benign’. Further, we know that in Britain Anu was worshipped as Andate. The ceremonies involved the suspension of sacrificial women in groves of trees and the severance of their breasts which were pinned up about the place in grisly fecundity rituals. Breasts as symbols of nourishment are important to Anu. In Ireland’s County Kerry we have placenames such as The Paps of Anu and The Paps of Morrigan, this latter being a poor translation from Da Cich na Morrigna, actually meaning the Two Breasts of the Great Queen.