DeDanaan

Avalon : A Celtic word meaning “the island of apples,” was an island paradise to which heroes were taken after their death. King Arthur was taken there after being mortally wounded in battle. In medieval romantic poetry, Avalon is the place where the fairy Morgan le Fay held her court.

Allegory : A literary device, an allegory is a story or a description in which events or characters stand for meanings not visible on the surface. An allegory treats one subject by disguising it as another. Allegorical characters often represent moral virtues or vices (such as Truth, Conscience, or Reason), rather than imitating human personality. Similar to the fable, the parable, and the morality play, the allegory is no longer widely used.

Ages of Man

The Ages of Man are the stages of human existence on the Earth according to Classical mythology.

In his Works and Days, the Boeotian poet Hesiod described Five Ages of Man:

* The Golden Age - This took place during the reign of Cronus. Peace and harmony prevailed during this age. Humans did not grow old, but died peacefully. Spring was eternal and people were fed on acorns from a great oak as well as wild fruits and honey that dripped from the trees. This race eventually died out.
* The Silver Age - These people lived for one hundred years as children without growing up, then they suddenly aged and died. Zeus destroyed these people because of their impiety.
* The Bronze Age - These humans were fierce and warlike and their tools and implements were made of bronze. They destroyed one another in wars.
* The Heroic Age - In this period lived noble demigods and heroes. This race of humans died and went to Elysium.
* The Iron Age - This is the current age where humans bicker and fight, and have to struggle to eke out their existence. Zeus will someday destroy this race of humans. In Roman literature the Iron Age is commonly regarded as a time of decline from the great literature and culture of the Heroic age, beginning after the taking of Rome by the Goths, 410 AD. Through Greek and Assyrian oral tradition iron production was believed to have begun with the discovery of iron near the mineral-rich region north of Assyria.

In Metamorphoses, Ovid followed a similar tradition, translated into Roman terms. Ovid described Four Ages of Man: Golden, Silver, Brazen, and Iron.

These mythological ages are sometimes associated with historical timelines. In particular, the Bronze Age and Iron Age are well-known eras in archaeology, which may have some relation to the mythology.

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.

Airbe Druad : A mystical protective barrier (’druid’s hedge’) created round an army by a druid. It sometimes seems that a similar barrier protects the ancient wisdoms and understandings from ourselves…

Answerer : Fragarach (Frecraid, Freagarthach) was also called the “Answerer”, a magical sword that had belonged to Manannan MacLir and Lugh Lamfada. Manannan wielded it as his weapon, before passing it on to Lugh (his foster son). It was said to be a weapon that no armour could stop. Possibly one of the Four Treasures of the Tuatha de Danaan (Sword of Findias made at Gorias, which also belonged to Nuada).

Angus, Angus Óg, Oengus : Son of the Dagda, Irish god of love; wooes and wins Caer. His mother was Boann. He was called Mac Óg (or the Young Son) after his mother’s words, ‘Young is the son who was begotten at break of day and born betwixt it and evening’, referring to his magical conception and gestation. He was fostered by Midir. Because of his magical birth, he had power over time. When the mounds of the Sidhe were being distributed between the Tuatha De Danaan, he arrived late and demanded to spend a day and night in the dwelling of the Dagda. This was granted, but on the following day when he was asked to leave, he said, ‘It is clear that night and day are the whole world, and it is that which has been given to me.’

Variants state that Angus was given the sidhe of Bruig na Boinne in place of his mother’s husband, Elcmar. He was the foster-father of Diarmuid.

Amergin, Amirgin, Amairgen, (am ORG in, or OY ar gin) : Milesian poet, son of Miled, husband of Skena. His strange lay, sung when his foot first touched Irish soil; his judgment, delivered as between the Danaan’s and Milesians; chants incantation to land of Erin; Amergin the Druid, gives judgment as to claims to sovranty of Eremon and Eber; Ollav Fá´la is compared with Amergin.

The Judgment of Amergin : The Milesian host, after landing, advance to Tara, where they find the three kings of the Danaans awaiting them, and summon them to deliver up the island. The Danaans ask for three days’ time to consider whether they shall quit Ireland, or submit, or give battle; and they propose to leave the decision, upon their request, to Amergin. Amergin pronounces judgment -”the first judgment which was delivered in Ireland.” He agrees that the Milesians must not take their foes by surprise - they are to withdraw the lenght of nine waves from the shore, and then return; if they then conquer the Danaans the land is to be fairly theirs by right of battle. The Milesians submit to this decision and embark on their ships. But no sooner have they drawn off for this mystical distance of the nine waves than a mist and storm are raised by the sorceries of the Danaans - the coast of Ireland is hidden from their sight, and they wander dispersed upon the ocean. To ascertain if it is a natural or a Druidic tempest which afflicts them, a man named Aranan is sent up to the masthead to see if the wind is blowing there also or not. He is flung from the swaying mast, but as he falls to his death he cries his message to his shipmates: ‘There is no storm aloft.’ Amergin, who as poet - that is to say, Druid - takes the lead in all critical situations, thereupon chants his incantation to the land of Erin. The wind falls, and they turn their prows, rejoicing, towards the shore. But one of the Milesian lords, Eber Donn, exults in brutal rage at the prospect of putting all the dwellers in Ireland to the sword; the tempest immediately springs up again, and many of the Milesian ships founder, Eber Donn’s among them. At last a remnant of the Milesians find their way to shore, and land in the estuary of the Boyne.

Encyclopedia of the Celts

Aisling : The word means dream or vision and is, in modern Irish, a woman’s name, but in the many Irish tales bearing this title, the dreamer experiences a vision of a Speir-Bhean or vision-woman whose beauty leads him into closer communion with the Otherworld. A great many poets of the eighteenth century wrote Aisling poems, in which a fair woman is found wandering in poverty and distress. She represents the land of Ireland itself, oppressed under the English yoke.