Dúns appear to have arrived with the Brythonic Celts in about the 7th century BC, associated with their Iron age culture of warrior tribes and petty chieftains. Early Dúns had near vertical ramparts constructed of stone laced with timber, and where this was set on fire (accidentally or on purpose) it forms the vitrified forts where stones have been partly melted, an effect that is still clearly visible. Use of Dúns continued in some cases into the medieval period.

The word in its original sense appears in many place names, and can include fortifications of all sizes and types, for example Din Eidyn, in Gaelic Dún Éideann which the Angles (Anglos) renamed Edinburgh, and the Broch Dun Telve in Glenelg.

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. (more…)

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.