A Speculation On the Peculiarities of Ireland, with Accompanying Travelogue of Important Locations, as Presented for the Perusal of the Clock Tower’s Esteemed Department of Curses by Rhiannon of Clan Amergain, Fes rank.
Chapter Three: The Taking of Ireland and the People of Nemed
- Dated November 8th, 1989
“Despite these various considerations, I shall in what follows be speaking of the ‘Túatha Dé,’ not of ‘gods’ or ‘fairies.’ While the people of the síd may have originated as the former, and may have ended up as the latter, the use of either of these terms would not do justice to the rich and persistent ambiguity which, as we shall see, characterises their nature in the medieval sources.” - Dr. John Carey, The Mythological Cycle of Medieval Irish Literature.
Ireland has always occupied a position on the frontier of Europe. While the powers of Europe were aware of the island from at least as far back as the Roman times, and the island itself shows signs of human habitation dating back to the Neolithic period, it has, if anything, remained more obscure and distant to the political movements of the continent than the nearby island of Britain. Knowing this, and knowing how slowly the rate of Mystery declined in the isle of Britain compared to its continental neighbors, one shouldn’t be surprised to find that the rate of Mystery declined quite slowly in Ireland, too. The Finn Cycle takes place roughly contemporary with the exploits of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and there is no reason to dispute the existence of Phantasmals and individuals of extraordinary power in Ireland at the time any more than there is reason to dispute it in Britain.
And there is a degree of kinship between the traditions of the Isles, but Ireland’s story is also one profoundly different to that of the British Isles, and the root of that strangeness comes down to the island itself. While it is only speculation on the part of those who have extensively studied the island, our current operating theory is that
the island itself may have once been part of the Otherworld. This would account for some of the strange rules that surround it, as well as the abundance of supernatural beings recorded in the Book of Invasions. It may simply be that for a substantial part of its history, Ireland had one foot in the texture of Man and one foot in the texture of the Otherworld, with the dominant inhabitants determining its exact status in the world. It may have been that there was once no Ireland at all. While it remains a supposition, we will move forward with the assumption that the island itself has waxed and waned in sync with the greater Human Order, only fully becoming a codified part of it with the Mílisian invasion.
Our overview of the supernatural inhabitants of Ireland will begin with the three most important "tribes" to govern it: The Fir Bolg, the Túatha Dé, and the Fomoire, beginning with the Fir Bolg.
The Fir Bolg
What exactly the Fir Bolg are is a subject of much debate. According to the Book of Invasions, they left Ireland for Greece after a great flood, where they were enslaved as laborers by the local populace. However, given the skepticism surrounding the identity of Nemed and the uncommon animosity between the Fir Bolg and the Túatha Dé that would seem somewhat out of character for such close kin, I present a different idea:
The Fir Bolg were once denizens of Greece. They may have been fairies, nature spirits, or something in-between, but they lived in Greece until something caused their flight. If the story of their enslavement is true, it may be that the remnants of the Theoi decided to appropriate them for some purpose or another - perhaps, indeed, for manual labor - but whatever their reasoning, they left the texture of Greece, perhaps escaping through the Inner Sea, and subsequently found themselves in Ireland. Given the island’s close proximity to the Inner Sea and, indeed, potential origins in the Otherworld, it may have served as the first potential destination the Fir Bolg could escape to. However they came here, the impact of the Fir Bolg cannot be understated. While the Túatha Dé ruled the island for longer, the Fir Bolg established something so fundamental to the function of the island that nobody else could ignore: The Sacred Kingship.
In some ways, the Sacred Kingship is very simple: it is a contract with the land that good rule leads to good outcomes, that a good king of sound mind and judgment will create an Eden on Earth, while a bad king, or worse, a good king who has enjoyed the fruits of the land but fails to enact good judgment, will rule a Hell on Earth. Thus was born the rule of Eochaid mac Eirc, the Good King. In Eochaid’s rule, crops grew without rainfall, deceit was banished from the four corners of Ireland, and everyone enjoyed peace and prosperity. Eochaid’s kingship set the example for all to follow, and his unfailing judgment proved nearly impossible to replicate for every king who followed him, all to disastrous results.
Of course, the reign of the Fir Bolg would eventually come to an end. First they attempted to negotiate with the new arrivals the Túatha Dé, but when they demanded half the island for their own use with nothing given in return, the Fir Bolg went to war. While Sreng of the Mighty Blows would succeed in fighting them to a standstill at the battle of Maige Tuired, even cutting off the arm of Nuadu and thus depriving him of his kingship, after the death of Eochaid mac Eirc and a hundred thousand of the Fir Bolg, the surviving remnant signed a treaty with the Túatha Dé, allowing them to settle in Connacht, in a kingdom that would come to be known as Irrus Domnann.
The Túatha Dé
The observant may have noticed that I have consistently referred to the group of beings commonly known as the “Túatha Dé Danann” merely as the “Túatha Dé.” This is both to save time, in the sense that I assume the majority of people are familiar with the full name, but also something of a statement about their nature. Without the possessive “Danann,” that is “of Danu,” the name takes on a different meaning: The God-Like People. This, I think, comes the closest to capturing the ambiguous nature of these beings which, on some level, are neither fish nor fowl. They came to Ireland from the Four Cities, four places of great learning and craftsmanship, from which they each brought a treasure. From these Four Cities, they sailed to Ireland, burned their ships, and resolved to never leave or speak of the Four Cities again.
What we can say for certain is that the Túatha Dé are the upper class of the Aos Síde. The Aos Síde are a category of being which includes the Túatha Dé, but does not only encompass them. A member of the Túatha Dé is of the Aos Síde, but not every member of the Aos Síde is of the Túatha Dé. The Túatha Dé stand at the apex, god-like masters of their craft or station, whether that be kings, smiths, physicians, warriors or poets. These all seem like quite human traits or practices to represent, which would seem to suggest that they are, on some level, gods or Divine Spirits. However, as part of the Aos Síde, they are also fairies, denizens of the Otherworld, and their relationship with humanity is at best reciprocal assistance and at worst malicious manipulation and outright hostility. While there are certainly gods with a fractious relationship with mortals - one would only need to look elsewhere in Europe for examples - the degree to which the Túatha Dé remain ambivalent towards humanity suggests their origin may lie with the fairies.
When I refer to “fairies,” I of course refer to the beings which act as the planet’s sense of touch. While some of them may possess the same or greater ranks of power than even a Divine Spirit, they are ultimately not beholden to human imagination or understanding. Gods exist in a symbiotic relationship with humanity, whether either party is willing to admit it or not, while greater Nature Spirits exist for the sake of the planet, ambivalent to the greater humanity and abiding by their own rules, acting in the interests of the planet as a whole rather than simply its most numerous and dominant species.
It might be that the Túatha Dé started as the latter, pure Divided Spirits of the planet, similar to the Fir Bolg, and eventually became the former. They may have been bound forever to humanity after being forced beneath the earth after the Mílisian invasion, but continued to abide by the laws of fairies rather than gods, explaining some of the strangeness of the Otherworld and the Aos Síde.
Their most lingering legacy, outside of their appearances in the sagas where they often end up causing chaos by unilaterally acting upon the heroes of the various sagas, is the profession system itself. Ireland’s laws were ultimately based on social class, and social class depended on your profession. Kings, warriors, poets, smiths and physicians were the highest, with the druids hot on their heels. From there flowed a labyrinthine system of status negotiation and hierarchy, with farmers, slaves and day-laborers at the bottom. While it was accompanied by a complex legal system, this system of laws deeply favored those highest in the professional order in many ways, the most notable of which may be that witnesses of a higher social order were believed to tell the truth even if they contradicted a witness of a lower social order. Those who stood outside it - who possessed no social class at all - were considered less than dirt. This system was implemented by the Aos Síde, and they imprinted it so strongly on the land that even the Mílisians could not escape it. Like many of these curses, it would fade as the Age of Gods continued to wane and the amount of ambient magical energy simply could not continue to feed the island’s many contracts.
We shall discuss some members of the Túatha Dé in more detail as we go through our travelogue, but I will leave this section here for now to talk about the final group of unsuccessful enemies of the Túatha Dé, the Fomoire.
The Fomoire
Much like their rivals (and, it must be said, frequent romantic partners) the Túatha Dé, the Fomoire are quite mysterious. Although frequently mischaracterized as giants, they are, in truth, not much larger than the Túatha Dé - indeed, many of the Túatha Dé are children of the Fomoire. The Book of Invasions suggests they may have been the island’s very first inhabitants, clashing with the descendants of Nemed over the rulership of the island until a great flood rose up and drowned all but one ship of Nemedians, from whom the Fir Bolg and the Túatha Dé both claim descent.
What is known is that they, in collaboration with the recent King of the Túatha Dé, Bres the Beautiful, built a land bridge from their home islands to Ireland. Three of their kings set foot on Ireland: Indech son of Domnann, High King of the Fomoir, Tethra, and Elatha. These three kings would attempt to impose a tithe on the Túatha Dé in order to both bolster their own coffers and provide Bres with funds to further improve his kingdom - they were rejected.
They attempted to broker a peace between the tribes by marrying Eithniu, the daughter of the Fomoire champion Balor, off to Cian, a high-ranking member of the Túatha Dé, but when Bres was eventually ousted and Nuadu reclaimed the throne, the Túatha Dé went to war. At the Second Battle of Maige Tuired, the new arrival Lugh, the son of Eithniu, would slay his grandfather Balor, and while many of the Túatha Dé perished in the battle, including Nuadu and Ogma, the latter falling in battle against Indech although ultimately successful in killing him, they would ultimately drive the Fomoire back, enslaving those who remained on the island. Those who were not killed were taken as hostages, made to labor under the Túatha Dé in perpetuity for having the temerity to tax them.
One of many theories that permeates on the fringes of those who deal with the ancient history of Ireland is that the Fomoire may be another group from outside who went native. Indeed, the story of Ragnarok provides us with a fascinating possibility. While many of the Æsir and Vanir are named either on the list of names of those who perished during Ragnarok or those who would survive the Twilight of the Gods, many more of them are unnamed in either, particularly those of the Vanir. It may be that the Vanir, or some of their servants, survived the initial battle but found themselves cut off from their home by a texture that was burned away. Attempting to make an escape for a place that still retained enough Mystery to act as a home, they found Ireland, a place that they may have attempted to lay claim to before but finding themselves in conflict with the first descendants of Nemed. This would certainly explain both their connection with powerful sorcery (seidr being a purview of the goddess Freyja) and their home of origin being “across the sea” to the east of Ireland, further away than the other British Isles.
Strange Places - Bull Rock
Bull Rock is a stone formation on the west coast of Ireland in the southwest part of County Cork in the province of Munster. On its own, this location may seem innocuous, but it has long been known to be a passage to the Otherworld. In the Age of Gods, in fact, it was not merely a passage to the Otherworld, but a passage to Tech Dúinn, the House of Donn. “Donn” means “The Dark One,” and appears here and there in the sagas, including as the name of the father of Diarmuid ua Duibhne. As such, they are usually referred to by patronyms such as “Donn mac Míl” for Amergain’s brother Donn, who died on the voyage to Ireland and never saw its shores, cursing the island with his dying breath.
The Donn of which I speak is Donn-Ainech, the keeper of Tech Dúinn and God of the Dead, and the tiny cave formation beneath Bull Rock itself was thought to be the entrance and exit to his house. Donn was one of the first of the Túatha Dé, a contender for kingship after the death of the Dagda, although he never sought it. He was also a warlord among the Aos Síde, one of the first to clad his warriors in iron rather than bronze. A temperamental god, Donn appears as both help and hindrance, sometimes killing people for the simplest slights, sometimes burying them in gold for the simplest acts of kindness. Tech Dúinn is said to be like a hostel, a place where the dead can find rest and comfort before embarking on their final destination - although whatever location this is has been lost to time.
Even to this day, those who seek passage to the Otherworldly Sea pass through Bull Rock, though it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a path to it in the first place, let alone return…