The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends (5 page)

Sometimes, impossible quests were fulfilled in the most impossible ways. The natural and the possible is often discarded for the supernatural and the impossible. The elements of fantasy, cosmic
horror and the supernatural form an indispensable ingredient in the earliest folklore of the Celts. This has ever been a strong tradition, even among more modern generations of Celtic writers, who
seem to have inherited the old ability to present breaks in natural laws as vivid and realistic.

However, when all the analysis is written and pondered over, when all the background is considered and digested, it is to the stories that we must turn and we should never forget that they were
told for entertainment: that they were meant to be enjoyed as well as learnt from. Above all, we should not forget that a sense of mischievous fun is never far from the surface.

Before the beginning . . .

1 The Ever-Living Ones

I
t was the time of primal chaos: a time when the Earth was new and undefined. Arid deserts and black bubbling volcanoes, covered by swirling clouds
of gases, scarred the grim visage of the newborn world. It was, as yet, the time of the great void.

Then into that oblivion, from the dull, dark heavens, there came a trickle of water. First one drop, then another and another, until finally there gushed a mighty torrent down upon the earth.
The divine waters from heaven flooded downwards and soaked into the arid dirt, cooled the volcanoes which turned into grey, granite mountains, and life began to spring forth across the Earth. The
dark, reddened skies grew light and blue.

From the darkened soil there grew a tree, tall and strong. Danu, the divine waters from heaven, nurtured and cherished this great tree which became the sacred oak named Bíle. Of the
conjugation of Danu and Bíle, there dropped two giant acorns. The first acorn was male. From it sprang The Dagda, “The Good God”. The second seed was female. From it there
emerged Brigantu, or Brigid, “The Exalted One”. And The Dagda and Brigid gazed upon one another in wonder, for it was their task to wrest order from the primal chaos and to people the Earth with the Children of Danu, the Mother Goddess, whose divine waters
had given them life.

So there, by the divine waters of Danu, from where those waters rose and flooded through the now fertile green valleys of the Earth, eastwards towards a distant sea, The Dagda and
Brigid settled. And they called the great course of eastward rushing water after the Mother Goddess, which is Danuvius, whose children still know it as the mighty Danube. And four
great bright cities they built there on its broad banks, in which the Children of Danu would live and thrive.

The four cities were Falias, Gorias, Finias and Murias.

The Dagda became their father; thus humankind call him “The Father of the Gods”. And Brigid became the wise one, exalted in learning and much did she imbibe from the mighty Danu and
from Bíle, the sacred oak. She was hailed as the mother of healing, of craftsmanship and of poetry; indeed, she excelled in all knowledge. She showed her children that true wisdom was only
to be garnered from the feet of Danu, the Mother Goddess, and so only to be found at the water’s edge.

Those who gathered such knowledge also paid deference to Bíle, the sacred oak. Because they were not allowed to speak his holy name, they called the oak
draoi
and those learned in
such knowledge were said to possess oak (
dru
) knowledge (
vid
) and thus were known as Druids.

The knowledge of the Children of Danu grew and each of their four great cities prospered. In Falias they held a sacred stone called the
Lia Fáil
or Stone of Destiny, which, when a
righteous ruler set foot on it, would shout with joy; in Gorias, where Urias of the Noble Nature dwelt, they held a mighty sword called the “Retaliator”, fashioned before the time of
the gods themselves, and which Urias presented to Lugh Lámhfada, who became the greatest warrior among the gods; in Finias, they held a magic spear, called “The Red Javelin”,
which, once cast, would find its enemy no matter where he hid; and in Murias they held the “Cauldron of Plenty”, from which The Dagda could feed entire nations and it still would not be
emptied.

For many aeons, the Children of Danu grew and prospered in their beautiful cities.

Then one day, The Dagda, Father of the Gods, and Brigid, the Exalted One, called their children to them.

“You have tarried here long enough. The Earth needs to be peopled and needs your wisdom to advise and direct them, so
that they may live lives of virtue and merit. Our
Mother, Danu, has directed you to move towards the place where the bright sun vanishes each evening.”

“Why should we go there?” demanded Nuada, the favourite son of The Dagda.

“Because it is your destiny,” replied Brigid. “And you, Nuada, shall lead your brothers and sisters, and their children, and the land that you shall come to will be called
Inisfáil, the Island of Destiny. There shall you abide until your destiny is fulfilled.”

“If it is our destiny,” said another of The Dagda’s sons, named Ogma, “then we shall accept it.”

Ogma was the most handsome of the Children of Danu. From his long curly hair, the rays of the sun shone and he was called Ogma
grian-aineacg,
of the Sunny Countenance. To him fell the
gift of honeyed words, of poetry and of languages, and he it was who devised how man could write in a form of calligraphy, which was named after him as Ogham.

Brigid smiled at her eager children. “I am allowed to give you one word of warning. When you reach Inisfáil, you will find another people who will claim the Island of Destiny as
their own. They are the Children of Domnu, who is the sister of our mother Danu. But beware, for Domnu is not as Danu. For each sister is the inverse of the other, as winter is to
summer.”

“Then,” Nuada said, “should we not take something to defend ourselves with, lest the Children of Domnu fight us for the possession of Inisfáil?”

The Dagda gazed at them kindly and replied, “You may take the four great treasures of the cities of Falias, Gorias, Finias and Murias.”

And the Children of Danu took the treasures and they went to the mountains overlooking the headwaters of the Danuvius, the divine waters from heaven, and ascended in a great cloud which bore
them westward to Inisfáil, the Island of Destiny. And among them were three beautiful young sisters, who were the wives of the sons of Ogma. Their names were Banba, Fótla and
Éire and each sister nurtured an ambition
that this new land of Inisfáil would one day be named after her.

Night wrapped her darkened mantle over Magh Tuireadh, which is called the Plain of Towers, which lay in the west of the land of Inisfáil. On each side of the great
plain, separated by the River Unius, myriads of small campfires glowed in the gloom. Two armies had gathered for combat.

Seven years had passed since the Children of Danu had landed in their cloud on the shores of the Island of Destiny. They had fought initially with a strange race of people called the Firbolg,
who challenged their right to rule in the Island of Destiny. These they had met at the Pass of Balgatan and the conflict went on for four days. And in that conflict there came forth a champion of
the Firbolg, named Sreng, who challenged Nuada, the leader of the Children of Danu, to single combat. So strong and mighty was Sreng that, with one sweep of his great sword, he cut off
Nuada’s right hand.

But the Firbolg and their king, Eochaidh, were defeated and dispersed.

Dian Cécht, the god of all physicians, came to Nuada after the battle and fashioned him an artificial hand of silver, so strong and supple that it was little different from the real hand.
Thus did Nuada receive his full name, Nuada Argetlámh, of the Silver Hand. Because he was maimed, the other children of Danu had to choose another of their number to lead them, for they had
been told by Brigid that no one with a blemish must rule them.

In choosing a new leader, they made a disastrous choice. As an act of conciliation between themselves and the Children of Domnu, they chose Bres, son of Elatha, king of the Children of Domnu who
were also known as the Fomorii, or those who dwelt beneath the sea. And to further consolidate the alliance, Dian Cécht married Ethne, the daughter of the foremost Fomorii warrior, named
Balor of the One Eye. And the condition was that, if Bres did anything which displeased the Children of Danu, then he would abdicate and depart in peace.

Those years marked a period of strife. Bres, being a
Fomorii, refused to keep his word and began to lay heavy burdens on the Children of Danu. For a while, Bres and the
Children of Domnu, the children of darkness and evil, dominated the land, and the Children of Danu, the children of light and goodness, were helpless and as slaves.

Then finally, Miach, the son of Dian Cécht, aided by his sister, the beautiful Airmid, fashioned a new hand of flesh and bone for Nuada. His hand replaced Dian Cécht’s silver
one and now, without blemish, Nuada reclaimed the leadership of the Children of Danu. So jealous was Dian Cécht of his son’s achievement that he slew Miach. But that is another
story.

Nuada chased Bres back to the land of the Fomorii, where Bres demanded that Elatha, his father, provide him with an army to punish the Children of Danu.

Thus, on the plain where ancient megaliths stood, thrusting their dark granite skywards, Magh Tuireadh, the Plain of Towers, on the evening of the Feast of Samhain (October 31), the Children of
Danu faced the Children of Domnu in battle.

At dawn, the battle commenced. Combats broke out all along the line as Nuada led his warriors, both male and female, against the warriors of Bres and his Fomorii. Across the battlefield, the
Mórrígán, Great Queen of Battles, with her sisters, Badh the Crow, Nemain the Venomous and Fea the Hateful, rushed hither and thither with their wailing cries which drove
mortals to despair and death.

As time passed, Indech, a Fomorii warrior, approached Bres, and pointed out that whenever the Children of Danu were slain, or their weapons broken and destroyed, they would be carried from the
field and, shortly after, would appear alive and well again with their weapons intact. Bres summoned his son, Ruadan, to his side and ordered him to discover the cause of the endless supply of
weapons. And he summoned the son of Indech, a warrior named Octriallach, to discover how the Children of Danu, once slain, could come alive again.

Disguising himself as one of the Children of Danu, Ruadan went behind the lines of warriors and came across Goibhniu, god of smiths, who had set up a forge to one side of the Plain of Towers.
With Goibhniu were Luchtaine, god of carpenters,
and Credné, god of bronze workers. As each broken weapon was handed to Goibhniu, the smith-god gave it three blows of his
hammer, which forged the head. Luchtaine gave the wood three blows of his axe and the shaft was fashioned. Then Credné fixed the shaft and head together with his bronze nails so swiftly that
they needed no hammering.

Ruadan went back to his father and told him what he had seen. In a rage, Bres ordered his son to kill Goibhniu.

In the meantime, Octriallach had found a mystic spring on the other side of the Plain of Towers at which stood Dian Cécht, the god of medicine, with his daughter Airmid at his side.
Whenever one of the Children of Danu were slain, they were brought to the spring and Dian Cécht and his daughter plunged the body into the spring and they re-emerged alive again. In a rage,
Bres ordered Octriallach to destroy the healing spring.

Ruadan returned to the forge and asked for a javelin from Goibhniu, who gave it without suspicion, thinking Ruadan was one of the Children of Danu. No sooner was the weapon in his hand than
Ruadan turned and cast it at Goibhniu. It went clean through the smith-god’s body. Mortally wounded as he was, Goibhniu picked up the spear and threw it back, wounding Ruadan, who crawled
away back to his father and died at his feet. The Fomorii set up a great
caoine,
or keening, which was the first ever heard in the Island of Destiny.

Goibhniu also crawled away and came to the spring, where Dian Cécht and Airmid plunged him in, and he emerged healthy and healed.

That night, however, Octriallach, son of Indech, and several of his companions, came to the spring and each took a large stone from the bed of a nearby river and dropped it into the spring until
they had filled it. So the healing waters were dispersed.

Bres, satisfied the Children of Danu were now mortal, and angered by the death of his son, determined that a pitched battle should be fought. The next morning, spears and lances and swords smote
against buckler and shield. The whistle of darts and rattle of arrows and shouting of warriors made it seem as if a great thunder was rolling over the Plain of
Towers. The River
of Unius, which cut through the plain, was stopped up, so filled was it with dead bodies. The plain was red with blood, so cruel was the battle.

Indech of the Fomorii fell by the hand of Ogma. And Indech was not the first nor last of the leaders of the Fomorii to feel the steel of the Children of Danu.

Neither did the Children of Danu go away from the battle unscathed.

To the field of slaughter came Balor of the Evil Eye, son of Buarainench, the most formidable of the Fomorii champions. He had one great eye, whose gaze was so malevolent that it destroyed
whosoever looked upon it. So large and awesome was this eye that it took nine attendants, using hooks, to lift the mighty lid to open it for Balor. It happened on that fateful day of the battle
that Balor came upon Nuada of the Silver Hand, the leader of the Children of Danu, and hard and fierce was the contest. Yet in the end, after shield was shattered, after spear was bent and sword
was broken into pieces, it was the blood of Nuada that gushed in a never ending stream into the earth of the Island of Destiny. And not content in this slaughter, Balor turned upon one of
Nuada’s beautiful wives, Macha the Personification of Battles, goddess of warriors, and slew her also. Nor did Dian Cécht have the means to restore life to them.