DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

Danaan, Tuatha Dé : Literally, “the people of the goddess Dana / Danu.” The gods and goddesses of the pre-Christian Irish who inhabited the land before the coming of the Milesian Gaels. Their history is chronicled in the Leabhar Gabhala Erenn (’Book of Invasions’) and other ancient texts, as well as in oral folktales passed from generation to generation. When Christian monks started to write down the sagas, these gods and goddesses were demoted into heroes and heroines, although much remains to demonstrate their god-like abilities. Under their leader, Nuada of the Silver Hand, the Dé Danaan came to Ireland from an unknown northern country where they had four fabulous cities - Falias, Gorias, Finias, and Murias. In these great places they studied with learned sages. They became masters of the arts and sciences, both magical and mundane until they advanced to the point where they embodied the supernatural. They could go back and forth between the worlds at will, conjure weather, shape-shift, and they attained the utmost skills in poetry, magic, music, art, and weaponry. From each of the four cities the Tuatha Dé Danaan brought with them magical treasures : the Dagda’s Cauldron (’Undry’), the magical Spear of Lugh, the Stone of Fal (Lia Fáil, Stone of Destiny - the Lia Fáil would roar its approval when a rightful leader was elected to take leadership), and the Sword of Nuada (Cliamh Solais, for it was the Sword of Light). They defeated the FirBolg (”bag men”) and then overcame the Fomorii.

This is not to say that they were without vice. All human passion was experienced by them. Eventually, they were overcome by the Milesian Gaels, with whom in some texts they are also related and are regarded as the Ancestors of the Gaels. The Milesians drove them underground. The gods and goddesses of the Dé Danaan were common to all Celtic peoples : their names are cognate with many deities who appear in the Welsh myths. As they were pushed underground, they were demoted in the eyes of the people and became Faeries.

Dagda, the Good God, was their greatest and wisest ruler when the Milesian Gaels arrived. His daughter Brigit was the patroness of craftsmen and poets and came to be loved by the people of Ireland. Lugh was worshipped as a Sun God, and Badb, Macha, and Morrigan as triple War Goddesses. The triple goddesses would shape-shift and appear as old crones at times, and often as young maidens, as well. They (and some of the other goddesses) would take the form of crows or ravens, and fly over battle fields, goading the warriors into a frenzy. Many other of the Dé Danaans became well known in various Celtic legends, and were known as gods and goddesses and Ancestors. Whether they were or were not in fact deities, what the old texts tell us is that they were god-like beings (something between deities and humans), and were the basis for the Irish Faerie race. Many of them intermarried with humans. In fact, it is believed that almost all of the main clanns in Ireland were descended from the Tuatha Dé Danaan somewhere along their family lines, and many of the great genealogies of these clanns show direct lineage from the Danaans. Known as the Fair Folk, Good Neighbors, Little People, fae, elves, and a whole host of other names, there are numerous faeries of all types and descriptions all over the world today.

Thirty years from the battle of Magh Tuireadh South (with the Fir Bolg) to the battle of Magh Tuireadh North (with the Fomórians), as the verse says:—

1. Thirty years, it is known,
From the battle of Magh Tuireadh South,
To the battle of Magh Taireadh North,
In which fell Balor of the great host.

(p.215) Some antiquaries say that it is from the three sons whom Danann, daughter of Dealbhaoth, bore, the Tuatha Dé Danann were called, to wit, Brian, Iuchar and Iucharbha, i.e. three of the children of Dealbhaoth, son of Ealatha, son of Néd, son of Iondaoi, son of Allaoi, son of Tat, son of Tabharn, son of Enna, son of Bathach, son of Iobath, son of Beothach, son of Iarbhoineol Fóidh, son of Neimheadh: because that the aforesaid three were so accomplished [as that] in heathen arts, that these tribes with whom they were wished to style them gods, and to name themselves from them. Here is a stave of a quotation certifying it, that these three are the three gods of Danann, as the poem says, which has for beginning, Hear, ye learned without blemish, &c. :—

1. Brian, Iucharbha and Iuchar there,
Three gods of the Tuatha Dé Danann;
They were slain at Mana over the great sea
By the hand of Lugh, son of Eithneann.

It is from [the] Danann, who was mother to these three, Dó Chá­ch Danann is called to the two hills which are in Luachair Deaghaidh in Desmond. Others say that it is why they are called Tuatha Dé Danann, because it is in [their] three orders they were, of those who had come into Ireland on this expedition. The first order of them, which is called Tuath, used to be in the rank of nobility and headship of tribe: called tuathach, indeed, and called tighearna being equivalent, as called tuath and called tighearnas are equal. That is the more fit to believe, inasmuch as Dó Bhantuathaigh is given (as an epithet) for Beuchuill and for Danann, whom (p.217) they had for female rulers: so this verse gives us to understand :—

1. Beuchuill and Danann beloved—
The two female chiefs were slain;
The extinction of their magic at last
By pale demons of air.

The second order (to) which used to be called Dé, such are their druids, whence it is the above three used to be called the three gods of Danann. Wherefore they were called ‘gods’ (is) from the wonderfulness of their deeds of magic. The third order which was called Danann, namely, the order which was given to dán, or to crafts; for dán and céard are equal. - Source : The History of Ireland (BOOK I-II), Author: Geoffrey Keating

From the same book, SECTION XII.

Of the kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann here, and of the length of their sovereignty over Ireland.

Nuadha Airgeadlómh, son of Euchtach, son of Eadarlámh, son of Orda, son of Allaoi, son of Tat, son of Tabharn, son of Enna, son of Iobáth, son of Beothach, son of Iarbhoineol Fóidh, son of Neimheadh, took the kingdom of Ireland thirty years, till he fell in the battle of Magh Tuireadh North.

Breas, son of Ealatha, son of Néd, son of Iondaoi, son of Allaoi, son of Tat, held the kingship seven years.

Lugh Lámhfada, son of Cian, son of Dianchéacht, son of Easar Breac, son of Néd, son of Iondaoi, son of Allaoi, held the kingdom of Ireland forty years. It is this Lugh who appointed the Fair of Taillte at first as a yearly commemoration of Taillte, daughter of Madhmur, i.e. king of Spain, who was wife to Eochaidh, son of Earc, last king of the Fir Bolg, and who was wife after that to Eochaidh Garbh, son of Duach Dall, a chief of the Tuatha Dé Danann. It is by this woman Lugh Lámhfada was fostered and trained till he was fit to bear arms; and it is as an honourable commemoration for her Lugh instituted the games of the Fair of Taillte a fortnight before Lughnasadh, and a fortnight after it, resembling the games called ‘Olympiades’: and it is from that memorial which Lugh used to make Lughnasadh is given (as name) to the first day (or) to the Calends of August, i.e. the nósadh or commemoration of Lugh, (on which is now the feast of St. Peter’s chains). He fell by (the hand of) Mac Coll at Caondruim.

(p.223) The Daghdha Mór, son of Ealatha, son of Dealbhaoth, son of Néd, held the kingdom of Ireland seventy years. He died at Brugh of the bloody missiles of a cast which Ceithleann flung at him in the battle of Magh Tuireadh. Eochaidh Ollathar (was) the proper name of the Daghdha.

Dealbhaoth, son of Oghma Griain-éigis, son of Ealatha, son of Dealbhaoth, son of Néd, held the kingship ten years till he fell by Fiachaidh, son of Dealbhaoth.

Fiachaidh, son of Dealbhaoth, son of Ealatha, held the kingship ten years, till he fell by Eoghan at Ard Breac.

The three sons of Cearmad Milbheol, son of the Daghdha, that is to say, Mac Coll, Mac Céacht and Mac Gréine their names, assumed the dominion of Ireland thirty years; and some antiquaries say that it is a tripartite division which they made on Ireland, as is said in this verse:—

1. Though Eire had many thousands,
They divide the land in three;
Great nobles of glorious deeds,
Mac Coll, Mac Céacht, Mac Gréine.

However, it is not a tripartite division which was among them, but the permutation of the sovereignty, that is to say, each one of them had it every succeeding year, by turns, as we have said above in (enumerating) the names of this country, [and in the battle of Taillte all three fell]. It is why these names were given to those three kings, because Coll, Céacht, and Grian were gods of worship to them. Coll, indeed, was god to Mac Cuill, and Eathur was his proper name, and Banbha his wife. Mac Céacht, too, Céacht his god, Teathur his name, and Fódhla his wife, Mac Gréine, lastly, Grian his god, Ceathur his name, and Eire his wife.

(p.225) Oirbsean (was) the proper name of Manannán: it is from him Loch Oirbsean is named: for when his grave was being dug, it is then the lake burst forth over the land. It is to make this matter clear these verses following were composed :—

1. Eathur tall, who obtained dignity, fierce the man,
Coll his god, grandson of the Daghdha not gloomy, Banbha his wife;
Teathur stout, strong his contest, sharp his stroke (?),
Fódhla his wife, great deeds he accomplished (?), in Céacht he trusted;
2. Ceathur comely, fair his complexion, noble was he,
Éire his wife, generous woman she, Grian his divinity.
Manannán, son of Lear, from the loch, he sought the sraith,
Oirbsean his (own) name, after a hundred conflicts he died the death.

According to the Saltair of Caiseal, it is three years wanting of two hundred (is) the length of the sovereignty of the Tuatha Dé Danann over Ireland. This verse agrees with that:—

1. Seven year, ninety, and one hundred–
That reckoning is not false–
For the Tuatha Dé Danann with might,
Over Ireland in high sovereignty.