Pagan Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

The Milesians

1923

CHAPTER II. THE COMING OF THE MILESIANS. Authorities : (As before)

After the defeat and dispersion of the Firbolg race, the Tuatha De Danann possessed the land, but not in peace, for the Fomorians continued to haunt the northern and western coasts, just as their successors the Norsemen and Danes did long afterwards. The Tuatha De Danann were forced to meet them in a decisive battle in the north-west of Sligo. This fierce engagement, was known as the Battle of Northern Moytura, to distinguish it from the Battle of Southern Moytura, fought at Cong with the Firbolg, as we learned. The Fomorians were led by a terrible pirate called Balor of the Evil Eye, in league with one of the De Danann princes named Breas, who had been regent of Ireland for some years, but had so misgoverned that he had been driven out by his own people, and had taken refuge with the Fomorians, who were of kin to the Tuatha De Danann race, and closely related to them by marriage.

In this battle both Balor of the Evil Eye and Nuada of the Silver Hand, King of the De Danann, were killed, and the Dagda M6r, or Great Dagda, succeeded Nuada as monarch of Ireland. In after times, before the coming of Christianity, he became the great god of the Irish nation. After the Battle of Northern Moytura, we do not hear much more of the Tuatha De Danann as human beings, though we hear of them frequently in Irish stories as gods and fairies and supernatural beings, who lived in invisible places beneath the mountains, but still took an interest in the affairs of men; they even fought for or against them at times, and appeared to them when they were in distress, just as in the Greek story of the Siege of Troy, Juno, Minerva, Mars, and other gods and goddesses, are made to take part in the wars, and side with one party or the other.

The names of some of these chiefs whom the people afterwards thought of as gods (though they do not appear to have worshipped them) are Dagda M6r, greatest of all the gods; Angus Og the Beautiful, who was thought of as ever young and fair, the god of Youth and Beauty; Lugh Lamhfada (Lavada), or " Long-handed," the god of Light and the Sun's Bright Rays, which seemed to them like long arms out-stretched; and Manannan Mac Lir, the Ocean-god, who gave his name to the Isle of Man, called still in Irish, Isle of Manann.

There were also goddesses, of whom the best remembered are Morrigan, the " Great Queen," and Macha and Badb (Bov), the three grim war-goddesses, who generally appeared to foretell a battle, or to warn the hero what his fate would be; they had the power to change themselves into withered scald-crows. Perhaps the reason that these people were so well remembered was that the chiefs of the De Danann race were buried in great tombs, like IK tie hillocks, along the River Boyne, not far from Drogheda, and they remain there to this day, and are known in old stories as the fairy palaces of the Dagda Mor and Angus Og, etc.

The people never believed that they really died, only that they went below the earth into these fairy palaces. But we know that these were their tombs, for skeletons have been found in them. In a future chapter we shall learn what these wonderful tombs are like. The Milesians. We have now to consider what happened in Ireland before the close of the De Danann period, and this brings us to the fifth and last settlement of the country, the coming of the Milesians, who are the race from which the present Irish people, if they belong to the old Irish race, and not to the Xorman or English settlers, who came over afterwards, are descended.

If your family has one of the old Gaelic surnames, which generally have an "O" or a "Mac" before them, you are a Milesian yourself, so you should be interested to hear how your ancestors came to Ireland. They are supposed to have come from Scythia by way of Egypt, Crete and Spain. Wherever they came from, they seem to have had long wanderings, and to have been very glad to reach the shores of Ireland, which they called Inisfail, or the " Island of Destiny," because one of their prophets had foretold that they should inhabit it.

It is just possible, as some legends relate, that they came over from Spain, with which in early times Ireland had friendly communication. It is said in one story that there was a great famine in Spain, which forced the Milesians to leave; and they arrived in a large fleet of boats on the north coast of Ireland. But if the followers of Milesius really came from Spain, they would more likely have landed on the south coast, so that we cannot be sure if the old tradition of their origin is true.

However this may be, they made inquiries about the rulers of the country to which they had come. They were told that three brothers ruled the land in turn, but that at present they were all gathered at Aileach, in Ulster, quarrelling over the division of a number of jewels which had belonged to their ancestors. Ith, the Milesian leader, entered the room while the dispute was going on, and they were so much struck by his appearance that they referred the question to him, and asked him to settle the dispute. This he did by dividing the jewels equally between them, and then he told them that he could not think how anyone, and especially princes, could spend their time in wrangling and quarrelling, when they were so happy as to live in such a beautiful island as Inisfail.

He said that he had never visited such a delightful land before, where it was neither too hot nor too cold, where fruits and plenty abounded, where the grass was green and the trees luxuriant, and the hills and soft valleys made the landscape beautiful. In such a land, he said, the people should always live in friendliness and harmom together. When he had said this, the princes felt shame at their quarrelling, and Ith bade them a gentle farewell. As soon as he was gone the brothers changed their minds. They agreed that if the stranger liked the land so well, he would probably try to conquer it for himself, and they immediately got together a force of armed men to follow and try to take him prisoner.

They pursued him to the shore, and though the Milesians made good their retreat, he was mortally wounded, and carried to the ships to die. His people were enraged at this treachery of the princes, and vowed revenge. Milesius had died meanwhile, but the whole of his followers set sail in their thirty ships, and coasted round Ireland till they came to Wexford Harbour, which used to be called Inver Slainge (the Mouth of the River Slaney). But the Tuatha De Danann exerted all their magical arts against them, and raised a thick, magic mist, so that they could not find the shore. Then they put to sea again, hoping to find a better place to land. They sailed round the south coast westward, until they reached the Kerry shores.

Here again they tried to land, but again the De Danann raised a thick, confusing mist against them, so that for a long time they failed to find a harbour. At last they succeeded in landing, and they made their way up into the country, intending to march right across Ireland, and attack the princes at Tara, their royal palace. On their way they were met by three beautiful ladies, princesses, who told the new comers that they were the wives of the three princes who were reigning alternately at Tara. They said that their names were Banba, Fodla, and Eire, and that each of them had given her own name to the country; so that is how Ireland comes to have so many names Banba, Fodia, and Eire, her poetic names, besides Inisfail, the " Land of Destiny," which the Milesians called her; and Ireland, which we call her now, but which is not so beautiful a name as the others. Ireland is just a way of saying " Land of Eire," or Erin. But in early times, the ordinary name of Ireland was Scotia.

When the Milesians arrived at Tara, Amergin, their bard, one of the sons of Milesius, challenged the princes to battle. The princes refused, but they said that if Amergin would decide between them, they would agree to whatever he determined. I suppose they had found that Ith was so just in his decision that they were willing to put their trust in Amergin. If he decided unjustly, however, they said that they would use all their enchantments to destroy him.

He resolved that his people should put to sea once more at Inver Sceine (the River Kenmare, in Co. Kerry), which was named after Sceine, the wife of Amergin, who died there, and sail out to a distance of nine waves from the shore; then, if the Tuatha De Danann could again prevent the Milesians from landing, they were to go away from Ireland, and return no more; but if they succeeded in getting a footing on shore, the country must be surrendered to them, and the Tuatha De Danann must depart. The De Danann joyfully accepted these terms, thinking that it would be an easy matter to them to prevent the Milesians from landing.

While the ships were coasting down the shores of Ireland, close to the land, Amergin wrote a song about the country, describing the scenery of the coast. We still have this song, but it is written in very old Irish, and in a very difficult metre. It is a sort of incantation, and begins like this : " I invoke thee, Erin, Fertile, fertile, hill, Wavy, wavy, wood, Flowing, flowing, stream, Fishy, fishy, lake, etc."* This translation is taken from Dr. Hyde's Essay on Irish life then they put out nine waves from the shore, and the Tuatha De Danann raised against them by their magic arts such a terrible storm, that the ships were driven hither and thither, some of them dashing against each other, some driven on rocks, and others out to sea and round the south coast of Ireland.

In the darkness caused by the magic mist, they could not see each other, and in that terrible storm no less than five of the sons of Milesius perished. The youngest had mounted to the topmast, hoping to get above the horrible fog, and the wind blew him off into the sea. Donn was lost off the Kerry coast, with all his crew, at a place often called in the old stories " The House of Donn " Another brother, was thrown up on the precipitous rocks of Scelig Michel. Only three of the brothers survived Heber, Heremon, and Amergin the Poet. Heber and Heremon. The two elder brothers afterwards divided the country between them. The descendants of

Heber took the south, and dwelled in Munster; and the descendants of Heremon established themselves in the North. You will often hear in Irish stories of the children of Heber and Heremon, Poetry," published by the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, 1903 ; but a more beautiful form of the original poem is printed in Hardiman's " Irish Minstrelsy." and this is what it means. Amergin needed no property of his own, for the poets were always given all that they required by the chiefs of the different tribes. Everyone was proud to help or entertain a bard. Heber and Heremon, however, did not get the country without fighting for it; they met the forces of the Tuatha De Danann at a place called Taillte, or Telltown, in Meath; and though the enemy fought bravely, their three princes were slain.

Then the new settlers scattered themselves over the island, built dwelling-places, and began to sow and reap. A new palace was built at Tara, and all seemed to be prospering, until the wife of Heber, who was a greedy and covetous woman, and who, although her husband possessed the richest and most fertile part of Ireland, was never satisfied, said that as she owned two out of the three most beautiful valleys of Ireland, she must also have the third. She forced her husband to go to war with his brother about this, and in this battle Heber was killed, so that instead of gaining another valley, she lost all, for henceforward Heremon reigned as sole king. These, then, are the old stories of the origin of their race, which the Irish historians loved to tell. Some times they thought of these people not as men at all, but as races of gods who in old times had inhabited Ireland.

They especially thought in this way of the Tuatha De Danann, who were, you remember, a very clever people with a great knowledge of the arts, and numbers of beautiful stories were invented about these early gods and their great deeds, and their power and beauty, and the magic arts they were able to exercise. Just as all that we see and do as children seems greater and more wonderful than what happens after we grow up, so to the people who lived in very early times, all that happened before their day seemed more than human.

The poets and story-tellers took advantage of this way of looking at the past, and they wove wonderful and beautiful legends round these early times and made them into a sort of fairy-land, in which all strange things might happen and all marvellous things seem true.