N, nin, ash in ogham.

Wednesday; naescu, the snipe; necht,

crystalline; February 18 to March 18.

NA, not, EIr. no, OIr. na, Lat. ne, corresponding with the Eng.
un-, Cy. nac, nag, Bry. na. Confers wityh G. nach, that which
is not, not.

NAAS, the wife of Lugh, buried at Nass, County Kildare, the

chief residence of the kings of Leinster until 980 A.D.

NACH MAIREANN, MARRUINN, not productive, dead, but

present in the spirit-world. Marruinn, flowing with cream
(full of spirit).

NAIDHEACHAN FADA THALL, "very much lengthened stories,"

tall-tales. Fables as opposed to myths, the latter being
regarded as unverifiable history. The Gaels were careful to
distinguish between novels and history.

NAIR, “Modesty.” A goddess who consorted with the High

King Crebhán taking him to the Otherworld where she gave
him fabulous treasures.

NAMHAID (nahv), an enemy, Oir. nama, from the root nem, to

seize or take by force, thus Eng. nemesis. OHG, nama, rapine,
the Eng. nimble.

NAOI. Nine, Lat. novem as in November, the ninth month. me

of thesacred numbers in Gaelic mythology. It may be noted
that Fionn of the tales was thought to dwell in the Sun,
which had nine doors for entry and exit. At a later date this
number was reduced to seven.

This warrior-god lived, on earth, in a seven sided

mansion as did the Scots warrior-lady, Scathach, whose
house also had seven great doors and seven windows. Fionn
was not one of the Gaelic gods but a transformed human who
went to dwell in the Knoll known as Tomnahurich. Like the
Christ is is supposed destined to have a second coming in
the interest of aiding the common folk. It is said that his
arrival will be timed to follow the sound of his whistle
among men, and that he will return after crossing the nine
rivers that separate the lands of the living from those of
the dead. These rivers are: the Liffey, the Maine, the Boyne,
Carlingford Lough, and Larne water among others. The
peasantry sid that Fionn was lord of the Nine Otherworlds
and that he kept nine bards who travel yet in the world of
men to do his bidding. One of these messengers was clearly
The Bas: “he never delivered a cast that missed his hand.
That same man would be dead before a nine-days term was
out.” Sometimes this man “with the blood-red hand” was
referred to as The Tracker. It was said that nine rods stood
in the house of the dead, and that these belonged to the
individual “Lord of the Dead.” One of these ruling rods was
known to be carried by Manann mac Ler. In the west of
Ireland the horse which the death-god rode was said to be
nine-legged and as ready on the sea as on the land.

In the Gaelic realm it was also said that the sun

emitted nine rays and it was often symbolized in this
manner. Prayers and invocations often contained nine
appeals, and “The Lord of Justice” also entitled ‘The God of
the Nine Rays” was approached to straighten “the crooked
paths of laws and lawyers.” It has been suggested that
pillared Scottish stones with incised lined radiating from a
central boss also represent the power of evil-eye, and
possibly the hairs of the head, which weree sometimes
considered a seat of power. Campbell says that Fionn’s
personal banner had nine chains “dependent” on it. The
name of the banner has been given as Geal-gheugach, a’Ghil-
Ghreine, An Dia Griene Nighean Righ Feill Fionn and as An
Deo-Greine, and note that Der-Grene (Deur-Greine) is one of
the daughters of Fiachna, a god of the Underworld. Fionn is
also listed as “Lord of the Nine Ranks.”

NAOISE, NOISIU, NOISE. The eldest of the three sons of Usna

and his wife Elbha, the latter a daughter of the druid
Cathbad. Naoise and his two brothers, Ainle and Ardan were
champions of the Irish Red Branch. In the service of
Conchobhar mac Nessa he met Deridiu, who was set to
marry this king of Ulster. They fell in love, and with his
brothers, the pair fled to Alba where the men took service
with the king of the Picts. After some years Conchobhar
appeared to mellow in his attitude toward the sons of Usna
and sent Ferghas mac Roth to invite them all to return to
Ireland. Although Deirdiu foretold disaster she was unable
to forestall fate. In the end Naoise was killed by the sword
of Manann mac Ler which had been loaned to him on an
earlier excursion into the western ocean. Conchobhar was
able to have his will with the woman he desired but it is
said that pine trees grew from the graves of the two lovers
and their branches entwined across the water that
separated their graves.

NAOMB, holy, EIr. noem, O. Pers. naiba, beautiful. See next.

NAOMH, NAOIMH, heavenly ones, saints, holy. Initially men

devoted to a religious cause, pagan or otherwise. See above.

NÁR THUÁTHCAEACH. The swineherd of Boabd Dearg, the

rival to the swineherd Oichall Ochne of Connacht. They
fought their way through several incarnations. This
character was on a downhill slope for it was said, “he never
attended a feast at which blood was not spilt.” In the end
he was born as the Brown Bull which was so desired by
Queen Mebd.

NA-SCIGE, The Old Gaelic name for a “vacationing” gang of

dead animals and folk. An obsolete negative which is
associated with the modern sgéile. misery. There are a
number of related words characterizing this band,
especially: sigh, the little people; sgeig, mockery;
sgeigeach, having a prominent beard; sgeilcearra, supple,
active; sgeilm, boastful, prattling. Associated with all
this is the Clann Seelie, the people known as Sellicks or
Seligs in other parts of the world The lowland word selie,
the English silly, formerly identified a brave leader of men,
although it came to mean a person who was incautious in
the face of danger.

The unsilly people were the antithesis of the harmless

little people of Gaeldom. Brian Froud says that the Scottish
Host “Fly through the air at night, snatching mortals
unfortunate enough to fall in their path. The hapless
victims are dragged along, beaten and forced to participate
in heinous activities...The Unselie (Not Silly Court) also
includes a great variety of weird and terrifying
monstrosities. These are usually associated with
particular localities.” This “court” travelled on the
northern wind, and as the winds were at their height in that
half of the year that the old Gaels called geamhradh
(pronounced geaur-egh) the “riding time of the Gamer, or
Hunter,” it was supposed that the spirit of the Host
preferred hunting in that season. In the case of Odin’s
kingdoms the hunt seemed to be at its height in the month
called the Yule, but in Britain the death-deities were active
at the old Celtic quarter days, especially at the Samhain and
Beltane. The leader of the Hunt, and its time, varied
regionally and the pale rider might be Uller in Scandinavia
and Frau Wode, or Frau Gode, the goddess Frigga, in another.
She confers with the Cailleach bheurr, or “Winter Hag” of
Gaeldom. In some quarters Manann mac Ler or the sun-god
Lugh were said to be in charge of the collection of souls of
the dead.

NATH. obs. science, knowledge; nathach, obs., learned, dark,

gray, gloomy. See following.

NATHAIR, (na-ir), a snake, a serpent, viper, adder, Cy. neidr,

Corn. nader, MBr. azr, the Latin, natrix, snake; Goth. nadrs;
ON. nathr; English adder. The alter-ego, or second face, of
the Athair or Allfather, the creator-god. Nathair-glagain,
rattle-snake. The Nathair was the prime scape-goat at
Quarter-Day rites, when he appeared in the form of a hide-
covered man beaten with sticks by a following of
masqueraders or disguisers. We know that snakes were
frequently committed to the druidic bonfires (presumably
as representative spirits of Auld Reekie). It may be
apropos that the Gaels referred to the Anglo-Saxons as “the
Coiled-Serpent People.” In the last century Dr. Carmichael
noted “a curious custom, the pounding of a serpent in
effigy:” On the day of the Bride (February 2) he watched a
householder at Uignis, on Skye, take off a stocking, fill it
with peat and pound it “to death” with the hearth tongs. “as
she pounded she intoned a rann:”

This is the day of Bride;

When the queen must arise from the mound;
I will not touch (annoy) the queen,
Nor will the queen touch me.

This act seems to have been made on behalf of Samh

or “Summer,” the bride of Lugh or the Sun. The beaten
serpent is therefore the Winter-King, best known as Bil,
and the cautionary “live and let live” note is directed to his
mate, the Winter-Hag, who is the alter-ego of Summer.
This is made more certain since the queen is identified in
other examples of this incantation as “the daughter of Ivor
(Want).”

Notice the Conal Cernach and his friend Fraoch found

their great serpent at the foothills of the Alps. Annne Rice
thinks that their may have been an earlier tale in which this
creature was a local beast. In the metrical Dindshenchas
there was certainly a destructive snake which “would have
wasted all the cattle of the indolent hosts of Ireland by its
doings.” It was laid to ground by Diancecht, the god of
medicine.

In a prose version of this work, three serpents are

 mentioned as embryonic in the heart of Mechiwho was killed
by MacCecht before they could emerge to waste the land.
The ashes from this beast were cast into the river Berba
(Barrow). Saint Patrick inherited this mantle when he
struck his fundamental blow at the past by supposedly
banishing serpents from Ireland. It was believed that a man
bitten by a venomous serpent could preserve himself by
drinking from running water before the nathair. If he was at
a stream before the snake it was believed that the creature
would swell and burst, otherwise this would be the fate of
the bittern party. To be entirely safe, if the creature was
killed, it had to be cooked, divided into six portions, and
eaten by the injured party. Any remains had to be given “a
Christian burial.” Otherwise the nathair was likely to
regenerate itself. If portions were left unburied they were
reputed to putrify into yellow and black spots which
produced virulantly poisonous flies.

“Serpent’s heads are preserved for years to cure their

own sting-wounds. If a man, cow, or any animal be stung by
a serpent, let the dried serpent’s head be cast into water,
let the wound be washed in it,and it soon heals.” 1

NATHAIR CEANN, AN, “A Serpent-head.” The name given

certain mounds found scattered throughout Britain.
Folklorist Alaisdair MacGregor interviewed John MacRae
who told him that such mounds were “in the shape of a
serpent: and when the chief of the people would die, he
would be buried in the head of the serpent. One (researcher)
from London who was going about for such things, opened a
mound, and they found in the mound a big stone coffin with a
big stone slab on the top. And there the bowl was found with
the ashes of the dead chief... The bowl was taken to Manse...
It was there for some months; and they took it to Edinburgh,
to some museum or something. They were saying there was
a funny noise in the Manse when the bowl was lying there. If
they was any treasure in the bowl it was taken out before...”
MacGregor noted the presence of another mound at Cosaig.

1The Celtic Magazine, Jan. 1878, p. 98.

Here arrangements were made for an archaeological dig but
this was thwarted by a thunderstorm. Convinced that this
was desecration, the locals blocked the project.

NATHAIR MARA, NATHAIR NA’ MUIR, nathair, serpent; Old

Irish, nathir, Welsh, neidr, Cornish, nader, Middle Brythonic,
azr, Latin, natrix, a water snake. Confers with the English
adder. + marasgal, master. Possibly related to marc, a
horse and certainly to mor, great and muir, the sea. The
Gaelic sea-serpent. Notice Helen Creighton's report that
Maritime Canadian seamen do not like to dream of horses.
Lowland forms were the nuckalavee and the nuck.

According to Highlanders of Scotland sea-serpents are

the largest animals in the world and the greatest of these
was the one known as “The Great Whirlpool of the Ocean.” It
was said so large that its belly could contain the corpses of
seven whales.

Mr. Iain, a cleric at Glen Elg in 1875 was fond of

sailing. He, another clergyman, his two daughters and a boy
named Donald MacCrimmon were chased by a lesser
specimen near the mouth of Loch Hourne. At that the
monster was described as being “as round as a herring
barrel, and of great length. It went wriggling up and down
through the water, zigzag, right and left like.” The creature
came dangerously close to upsetting the sailboat but once it
said within the Loch they saw nothing more of it on the way
in to Arnisdale. The crew stayed there for a relatively long
time, Iain’s daughters and their little terrier opting to walk
the thirteen miles back along the water to their home. The
others eventually sailed out again in the yacht and found the
creature waiting for them. Again they were able to avoid
upset and made it to their home-dock. It has been guessed
that this same sea-snake was seen by an Islesman near
Kyleerhea, who guessed that “it was a week before his tail
passed me by.”

NATHAIR ORRA, incantation for the Nathair or death-god.

This was formerly addressed to the “hibernating serpent
(the adder),” on Bride’s Day (February 2). The chant is
incomplete but a portion is preserved:

Today is the day of Bridd;

The serpent will therefore come from the hole,
I vouchsafe I will not molest the serpent,
And ask that the serpent not molest me.

This date, often called the Imbolg , saw the first

annual reunion of Lugh the Sun with his Bride, who was
Samh or “Summer.” What they gained in power was seen as
a loss in the camp of the Dark-, or Snake-lord Bil. His mate,
the Cailleach bheurr, or “Winter Hag,” was from this time
slowly reformed as the virgin-goddess of Summer, thus the
need to propitiate this god and his kind. Bil and the
Cailleach had an aversion to sunshine, particularly on this
day; thus, men hoped that neither the serpent nor the
“Ground Hog,” would see their shadows, for this invariably
raised their tempers and brought on a few more weeks of
severe winter weather. If that day happened to be grey and
overcast, and these earth gods were properly propitiated,
they had a tendency to return to their underground without
taking action against the world of men. see braman.

NATHAIR SGIATHACH, a dragon.

NATHAIR THRAGHAD, shore-going sea-serpent.

NATHAIR UISGE, hydra.

NEABHAN, the Royston crow, raven, the totem of the

“witch” fraternity.
NEACH, an apparition, a person. From this neachd, obs., tribe,
family. A pledge and neachdachd, obs., nerutrality.

NIAMH, NEAMH, NEINAHE. heaven, the skies, “abode of bliss,”

OIr. nem, Cor. nef, Br. neff, Latin nemos, a sanctified grove,
Skr. námas, bowing, showing reverence. Sometimes referred
to the root nebh, cloudy, the Lat. nebula but Macbain says it
is nem, to distribute, the Germ. nehmen, to take. The old
world was a place of seemingly unending forest, that of the
British northland being termed the Caledonian Forest. The
heart of the forest was considered the seat of chaos and
godhood.

As late as the eight century a Christian bishop again

denounced "those rites of prayer which propitiate the secret
powers of the deep forest and the forest soil." The
guardians of such groves were virgin females termed the
nemaneach, “souls of heaven.” They derive from the
goddess Neman, who corresponds with the bafinn named
Emain Macha. The Mhorrigan and Neman are sometimes
substituted for one another in the triad of Mhorrigan, Badb
and Macha..

“All Cromarty (Scotland) people (whose countryside

remembers Cromm) are familiar with the belief that the
final judgement (of mankind) is destined to take place on
the “Moor of Navity.” See neimh and neimhdh. When
Cuchullain was hard pressed by enemies he once uttered
“his terrible battle cry which all demons must answer.”
Among them that day was the shout of Nemain, which was
Badb, and this brought “considerable confusion on the
opposing host.” Since the Badb belongs to the bafinne she is
one of the Mhorrigan triad. Rice has translated Nemain as
“Frenzy,” and says that “Morrigan (is) seemingly a generic
term by which any of these beings could be designated.”
This goddess may correspond with the Bry. Nemetona who is
invariable given as “a guardian of scared groves.” See
neimhidh for the location of some of these wooded retreats.
See also Nemain.

NEAMHACH, an angel, a heavenly spirit, based on above word.

Neamhan, raven, crow. Neimhead, consecrated ground.

NEARACHD, happiness, EIr. mogenar said derived from the

root mag, see magh above. That which increases, see mac,
cf. Lat. macte, at the root, the root of things, mak, great.

NEAS, NIOS, currently a weasel, a thing up from below, OIr.

ness, a sea serpent. Anglo-Saxon naes, nose, referring to the
fact that its head had this predominant feature. Also know
as the neck from another prominent characteristic.
Possibly related to the Old Gaelic ness, a wound. The Eng.
nessa did not differ substantially from the nicca, or nicks,
but were generally seen as the young of the species, having
less length and girth, and thus found coasting closer the
land, even entering lochs or embayments. Keightley noticed
that the Icelandic nuck was called Nickur, Ninnir or Hnikur,
which correspond with the eddaic names of Odin:

"He appears (sometimes) in the form of a fine apple-

grey horse on the sea-shore; but he may be distinguished
from ordinary horses by the circumstance of his hoofs being
reversed. If any one is foolish enough to mount him, he
gallops off and plunges into the sea with his burden." In
this form the nuck is an equivalent of the kelpie.

More often he was observed far from shore as in

November 1805: "A small vessel of the Traeth was upon the
Menai (Wales) sailing very slowly, when the people on board
saw a strange creature like an immense worm swimming
after them. It soon overtook them, climbed on board through
the tiller-hole, and coiled itself on the deck under the mast
- the people at first were dreadfully frightened, but taking
courage they attacked it with an oar and drove it overboard;
it followed the vessel for some time but a breeze springing
up they lost sight of it."

The Loch Ness Monster Nessie is representative of

this class of creatures. Thomas Keightley has said that,
"The Thames, the Avon, and other English streams never
seem to have been the abode of the neck." This is because
these southern rivers are shallow, and the nicks preferred
the room offered by the deep fjords. The nick has been
characterized as having two horns on its head, making it an
obvious relation of Micmac Indian wiwilameq and the
jipjakamaq. Like those creatures, the deep-sea nick has
been pictured as having a triangular head on a long neck
after the fashion of an ancient plesiosaur and a body not
unlike that of a seal.

The earliest North American sighting of one of these

mythical beasts in our waters occurred off Cape Breton
Island in 1805 when David Lee reported seeing a dark green
sea-serpent passing through the water "with an impetuous
noise." Twenty years later there were multiple reports
from a number of ships in Halifax Harbour when one swam
by on the twenty-fifth day of July. One man who saw it
guessed this nick to be "as big as a tree trunk and sixty feet
long." In 1833, to members of the Royal Navy at Mahone Bay,
Nova Scotia, saw a beast they said resembled a common
American eel, except that its long neck supported "a head
six feet in length." The two thought that the total length of
the animal might be eighty feet and claimed it was dark in
colour, almost black with streaks of white.

A very spectacular sighting was recorded by geologist

J.W. Dawson from Merigomish Beach, Pictou County, Nova
Scotia, in 1842. Estimated at one hundred feet in length,
this serpent beached itself within two hundred feet of
shore and struggled there for a full half-hour before
regaining deep water. In that time it was seen by a horde of
Pictonians. Some thought the head was horse-like others
said it resembled a seal. The colour was black but the body
surface had a mottled rough appearance. In its efforts to
reach safety, the animal was seen to "bend its body almost
into a circle." In 1890 a fisherman returning to Port George
on Victoria Beach, Nova Scotia, spotted another "horse-
headed" creature racing through the Bay of Fundy. The
captain noted that "it rolled hoop-like" beside his craft,
each hoop taking up thirty or forty feet of water. The crew
were terrified to observe "eyes as big as saucers" and as
the creature was following closely they put on more sail
hoping to outrun it. Nevertheless they were trailed under
threatening storm clouds as far as Prim Light. Two sister
vessels made similar sightings before the weekend, but this
sea-serpent was never reported afterwards.

A classic sighting of a ness was made by the entire

crew of the schooner Madagascar just before it docked to
load coal at Lubec , Maine on the morning of July 28, 190l.
The ship was moving through the Bay of Fundy at eight
knots when the watch warned of an object in the water,
which at first appeared to be a floating log. Within "a sea-
biscuit" of the object, sailors were astonished to see this
apparently inanimate object raise a snake like head and
glide sinuously away from the ship. The crew all agreed
that the animal was snake-like thirty feet in length and
covered with scales, which refracted light so that parts
appeared green and other areas brown. There were spinal
points all along the back and a huge dorsal fin just below
the head; this was thick, dark in colour, and about the size
of a man's hand. The body was estimated to have a diameter
of two feet, tapering slightly beyond the head and
drastically toward the tail. The men watched it for a half
hour as it made "fast skipping motions" through the water.

Edward Ray told "The Saint Croix Courier" of Saint

Stephen, New Brunswick, that he had been a seaman for nine
years and had never seen anything on or in the sea that
looked like this animal. Asked if it might be feasible to
trap the creature, Ray guessed that it would be dangerous
to attempt this or to injure it with a harpoon. T h e
"Saint Andrews Beacon" reported a similar sighting, August
2, 1906. This time the serpent was seen very near land by
Theobold Rooney the keeper of Sand Reef Light. This man
supposed that the monster had been drawn into shallower
water following a school of herring. After a fast entry into
the approaches of Saint Andrew's harbour, the serpent put
about and moved slowly away in the direction of Clam Cove.
Rooney said the animal was twenty-five to thirty feet in
length, and the diameter of a large weir stake. The keeper
said he might have taken it for a shark, but it lacked a
dorsal fin and kicked up a whale-like tail before diving out
of sight.

Having heard of these sightings the naturalist-

historian William F. Ganong came to the area to assess their
validity: "For the past few summers the local papers have
often reported the appearance of sea-serpents at
Passamaquoddy and the Saint Croix (River). The animal is
really there but is according to testimony of observant
persons, a White Whale...Locally it is stated that it came
into the Bay of Fundy with war-ships during the Champlain
celebrations, June 25, 1905...the animal was also seen in
the bay at least one season before 1905." If this was a
whale it was a very emaciated example!

NECHTAN. An early water god, the legitimate spouse of

Boann. Sidh Nechtan, or Nechtan’s Side-hill, County Kildare,
Ireland, held a sacred well, the Well of Segais, the supposed
source of arcane knowledge. Only four persons aside from
Nechtan were allowed to go there. Boann disobeyed the
taboo, and went to the well whose waters overflowed
drowning her, and forming the River Boyne.

NECTANEBUS. A pharaoh of Egypt whose daughter Scota

married Mil. A warrior-woman she was killed while fighting
the Tuatha daoine in County Kerry, Ireland. This Scota is
not the Scota identified elsewhere as the daughter of
Pharaoh Cingris, the mother of Goidheal, the progenitor of
the Gaels. There were two rulers of Egypt who actually bore
this name, the first ruled from 389 to 363 B.C., the second
from 360 to 343 B.C. The name, transcribed as Nechtan was
popular in Ireland and may historic personages bore it.

NEIDE. A Red Branch poet, the son of Adna, the chief poet at
the court of Conchobhar mac Nessa. Having learned the craft
from his father, Neide went to Alba for further study under
Eochaid Each-bel, “Horse-mouth.” One day, after consulting
with the ocean waves (it was traditional that poets had
their inspiration “at the edge of the water.”) he composed a
lament, and when he asked the waves why this mood had
overcome him, was told that his father had just died. Neide
returned to Ireland to claim the tugen, or mantle of poetic
succession, but was contested by Fer Cherdne who also
wished to be chief poet.

NEIMH, NIMH, poison, OIr. nem, to distribute, "something

given" (with evil effect. See entry immediately below. The
poisoners were the nemaneach, the "keepers of the grove."
Confers with Neman or Nemain, one of the triad goddesses
associated with Mhorrigan and Macha and Babd. These were
the semi-mythical creatures also known as the befinne, who
the Scandinavians called the fylgiar, vala, valkyra, nornr,
disces, or hagadisces, those given charge of "weaving" the
fates of men and the gods.

As Guerber has noted, they also "officiated at forest

shrines, and often accompanied invading armies...urging the
warriors on to victory. When the battle was over they
would cut the bodies of captives. The blood was collected
in great tubs, wherein the disces plunged their naked arms,
previous to joining in the wild dance with which the
ceremony ends." (The Norsemen, p. 171). As custodians of
wild lands these women became skilled in herbal medicine,
and must soon have noticed the effects of overdosing. As
prophetesses the nemaneach were rarely questioned, as they
we quixotic and could confer death at a glance.

Also anciently, the son of Agnoman, who gave his

name to the Nemedian race. The Partholans were the first
"human" race to attempt to occupy Ireland and the
Nemedians the second. A descendant of Magog and Japhet,
Nemed sailed to Ireland from Scythia with thirty-two ships.
His fleet spent only a year They spent a year and a half at
sea and their most of the expedition perished from hunger
except the leader and four women. When the survivors
landed they were only nine in number, but in the course of
many years they also multiplied until there was a
population estimated at 8,060.

Like the Farlanders, the Nemedians were

agriculturists who reformed the land into sixteen plains and
made a number of new artificial lakes. Before long they
became acquainted with the “huge, mishappen, violent and
cruel” Fomorians, and fought four pitched, and successful,
battles against them. The source of their quarrel is not
given, but it was never about land as these sea-people are
not recorded as coming into Ireland as a regular part of the
population. It would appear that the Fomorians sought
instead the normal rewards of piracy. They were unable
gain much booty in any of the land encounters but after the
fourth encounter the chieftainof the Nemedians and 2,000
of his people were killed by plague. Nemed was buried on
the largest island in Cork Harbour. This unexpected help
from the bas-finne, or fates, allowed the Fomorians to
dominate the Nemedians although they never felt confident
enough to mount a frontal assault.

In this period, the Fomorians were led by two

chieftains named Morc and Conann. By this time, the under-
sea people had established a outpost on Tory Island off the
coast of Donegal. From here they raided the land and at last
demanded a tribute of two-thirds of the milk production and
two-thirds of all the children born to the Nemedians. At
this the Nermedian leaders balked, and led by three
chieftains they landed on Tory Island and took both Conan’s
Tower and the Conann. At this moment in the battle Morc
arrived with a fresh host and utterly routed his enemy
killing all but thirty of the invading warriors. It is said
that the survivors gathered up what remained of their
possessions and people and retreated, leaving no
descendants to show that they had been there. After they
landed the population increased and the Nemedians fought
victoriously against the Fomors in four great battles, but
they were ravaged by a plague that killed two thousand
people.

The kings of the Fomorians were Morc and Conan, the

later based on Tory Island. Led by three war-lords, the
Nemedians captured Conan's Tower and took the king
prisoner. Unfortunately, at a critical moment, Morc came
into the battle and routed the Nemedians, who were all slain
excepting thirty men. Nemed was buried on Great Island in
Cork Harbour. The survivors gathered their possessions and
their women and children and retreated into the
Mediterranean region, from which they had come. A few
mythologists say that their remnants settled Britain under
a later chief of that name. Other claim they went no further
east than Belgium, after many years returning to Ireland as
an element of the Firbolg race and later as some of the
Tuatha daoine. See next entry.

NEIMHIDH, House of the Nemeds, a grove of trees, sanctuary,

or sacred place in which there was a central stone, a magic
tree, well or sidh-hill. From the Nemedians, early
inhabitants of Britain. Note the resemblance to Nemain, who
is sometimes represented as one of the bafinne. The word is
preserved as the modern Gaelic neimheadh (pronounced
nevay), the sacred lands of the druids confiscated by the
Christian Church; thus in current use, “church-lands.” In
every case, holy places set aside for religious observances
and the passing of judgements. The English nemeta, which
survive in Gaelic parts in the Scottish dialect as nemet or
navity.

Duneaves, in Perthshire, Scotland, derives from the

Gaelic Tigh-neimh, and the standing-stone known as the
“Great Ewe” which is found in that vicinity is thought to
have been a former centre of religious rites. Rosneath, on
the Gareloch, is actually Ros-neimhidh. Other northern
place-names of similar derivation include: Nevay, a parish
of Angus; Navidale, in Sutherlandshire; Creag Neimhidh in
Glenurquhart; Dalnavie in Rosshire; Navitie in Fife; and
Navity in Cromarty. Many of these former sanctuaries were
islands, as: Neave, near the Kyle of Tongue; and Isle Marie
in Loch Maree. Medionemeton. Note also Nemetona near Bath,
England and Vernemeton, Nottinghamshire.

Centuries after the introduction of Christianity the

sites not reconsecrated to Christianity were said “sacred
to the fairies.” She was also known as Arnemhidh, “She who
stands before the Sacred Grove.” the patroness of wells and
springs in Celtic Britain. In Roman times Derbyshire was
particularly noted for her healing springs. See nèamh.

NEIT, NET. A war-god, the husband of Nemain, part of the

triune Mhorrigan. He is sometimes given as the father of
mac Cécht in place of Ogma. Slain in the second battle of
Magh Tuireadh after which his sons divided Ireland among
themselves. As it was Nuada’s death that caused the upset
and division of property, Nemain is sometimes confused
with Nuada’s wife Macha. It would appear that Neit is
really a form of Nuada since Macha is one of the female
trinity.

NEITHEAN A’ TIGHINN, “the Nethy sprites are coming.” An

expression recorded from northern Nethy, Scotland. Eng.,
obs. neffy, downward, the downward parts. This has
reference to the goddess Nemain, see above.

NELADOIR, a druidic cloud diviner.

NEMAIN, (Now-nin), the distributor of goods, vengeance. A

war-goddess and wife to Neit. One of the five battle-
goddesses of ancient Ireland, the others were sometimes
said to be Fea, Hateful; Badb, Fury; Macha and Mhorrigan.
This goddess and Mahorrigan are one, being a single portion
of the triune known as the Bafinne.As Rolleston has said
some wordsmiths have associated Nemed with the old
Gaelic word for “sanctuary,” and with the goddess Nemain,
who is the Basfinne of the Gaels. Some have even gone
further noting that there was a Brythonic goddess named
Nemetona who was worshipped in the sacred groves at Bath.
Perhaps with this in mind, attempts were made to suggest
that one of the retreating Nemedians settled in
GreaterBritain, giving it his name. It is also said that
others of this tribe became the ancestors of of later
invaders, but as Rolleston says these “histories” seem
laboured and artificial. It would appear that the Nemedians
came from the west and this is not so clearly the case with
the some of the late-comers. See Neit and nèamh, “heaven.”

NEMANACH. A son of Aonghas Og, thought cognate with

Nemglan.

NEMED. A descendant of the Biblical Magog and Japhet

sailed out of the eastern Mediterranean with thirty-two
ships intending to settle Ireland.. The Nemedians were
related to the Partholonians, their leader being Nemed the
son of Agnoman, himself a brother to Partholon. His fleet
spent only a year and a half at sea where most of his people
died of hunger and dehydration.

When the survivors landed they were only nine in

number, but in the course of many years they multiplied
until there was a population estimated at 8,060. Like the
Farlanders, the Nemedians were agriculturists who
reformed the land into sixteen plains and made a number of
new artificial lakes. Before long they became acquainted
with the “huge, misshapen, violent and cruel” Fomorians,
and fought four pitched, and successful, battles against
them. The source of their quarrel is not given, but it was
never about land as these sea-people are not recorded as
coming into Ireland as a regular part of the population and
they were certainly neither hunters nor agriculturalists.

It would appear that the Fomorians sought the normal

rewards of piracy. They were unable gain much booty in any
of the land encounters but after the fourth encounter the
chieftain and 2,000 of his people were killed by plague.
Nemed was buried on the largest island in Cork Harbour.
This unexpected help from the bas-finne, or fates, allowed
the Fomorians to dominate the Nemedians although they
never felt confident enough to mount a frontal assault. In
this period the Fomorians were led by two chieftains named
Morc and Conann. By this time, the under-sea people had
established a outpost on Tory Island off the coast of
Donegal. From here they raided the land and at last
demanded a tribute of two-thirds of the milk production and
two-thirds of all the children born to the Nemedians.

At this the Nemedian leaders balked, and led by three

chieftains they landed on Tory Island and took both Conan’s
Tower and the Conann. At this moment in the battle Morca
mac Dela arrived with a fresh host and utterly routed his
enemy killing all but thirty of the invading warriors. It is
said that the survivors gathered up what remained of their
possessions and people and retreated, leaving no
descendants to show that they had been there.

Some say they later returned to Ireland as the race

known as the Firbolge. Rolleston has said some wordsmiths
have associated Nemed with the old Gaelic word for
“sanctuary,” and with the goddess Nemain, who is the
Basfinne of the Gaels. Some hav even gone further noting
that there was a goddess named Nemetona who was
worshipped in the sacred groves at Bath. Perhaps with this
in mind attempts were made to suggest that one of the
retreating Nemedians settled in Greater Britain, giving it
his name. It is also said that others of this tribe became
the ancestors of later invaders, but as Rolleston says these
“histories” seem laboured and artificial. It would appear
that the Nemedians came from the west and this is not so
clearly the case with the some of those who followed them
to Ireland.

NEMGLAN. A bird-god who appeared before Mess Buachalla

and seduced her. The son of their union was Conaire Mor.
After the death of King Nuada Necht, Conaire’s chariot was
surrounded by swirling birds. Taking out his sling he made
ready to kill them but they shape-changed into warriors.
One came forward and introduced himself as Nemglan who
laid the geis on his son that he might not kill birds.
Nemglan advised Conaire to walk naked along the road to
Tara if he wished to be king. The boy heeded this strange
advice and the prophecy was fulfilled.

NEOINEAN, a daisy, literally the “noon-flower,” from noin,

noon. Considered a sun-symbol and a good omen.

NEONACH, an eccentric or curious person or thing, sdtrange,

novel, that which is “unwont,” or not customary. Possessed
by the dark-side.

NERA, a servant to Ailill, king of Connacht. On Samhain

Ailill offered a gold- hilted sword to the man who had the
courage to encircle the left foot of a dead man on the
gallows of Ráth Cruachan with a ring of willow twigs. It
was known that the Underworld entrance became visible
under such conditions and sometimes valuable forecasts
came from the mouths of the dead. Unfortunately this was
also a time when the Fomors and defeated sigh could return
to the world of men seeking vengeance. Several men went
to the hill but returned terrified. Nera did as instructed and
the corpse asked for water. The two sought this drink in
the Netherworld, passing a house completely encircled by
fire; a second, inaccessible as it stood in a lake; coming at
last to a place where they were able to solicit three cups of
water. Apparently the dead man hated his host for he spat
the third cup upon those who served him and they died.
After that he commanded that his body be returned to the
gallows. Back in the world of men Nera returned to find
Aillil and Mebd’s palace aflame; the heads of Ailill and his
warriors removed as tokens by the Otherworld dwellers.
Nera immediately followed them back into the side-hill of
Cruachan, but was soon made captive of the sithe. He was
lodged with a woman of that tribe and made to carry
firewood. After a time the woman had a child by Nera and
confided that Rath Cruachan was entirely illusion and that
the burning of Mebd’s palace had not yet taken place, but
would happen unless he returned to Connacht to warn his
king. Nera took the sidh-woman and his child and made an
escape to the Outer World. Hearing his tale, Ailill sent mac
Roth to despoil Cruachan. His warriors took great plunder
from it including the crown of Brion. The Echtra Nerai upon
which this tale is based is eighth century but the tale is
much older.

NIA. Obs. A sister’s son. The name given any warrior or

champion. See next.

NIALLIG NOIGHIALLACH, Neil, gen. Nellis, the root niata,

“champion.” Hence Mac-Neill. The name was borrowed into
ON as Njáll or Njal and into Eng. as Nigel and Neil, whence
Nelson. The interaction of the Mhorrigan with the
Milesians is exemplified in the case of Niall Noighiallach:,
the son of Eochaid mac Muchtra, the twelfth king to bear the
name Eochaid. This king of Munster had a pedigree reaching
back to Ith son of Bregon so he was in the line of succession
for the high-kingship except for the fact that he was a
goill after the fashion of the Cailleach bheurr. That lady
was said to possess a single virulent eye, and this was also
the case with the Eochaid ard-righ. The term goill
embraces more than this “blemish” including general
distortions of the face, blubber lips, inane immobile grins,
pock-marks, the wry-mouthed condition, crossed-eyes and
similar genetic or accidental “problems.”

The people of Munster all suffered from their

relationships with the Fomors, and the king more than
others since this “defect” barred him from the throne at
Tara. Eochaid was king at the time of Conchobar mac Nessa
and formed an alliance with Ailill and Mebd during the Tain
war. Niall ard-righ had no such problem and he came to the
throne and ruled between the years 379 and 405 A.D. He
raided Britain and Gaul during the time of Theodosius the
Great being forced to retreat by the Roman general Stilicho.
He was assassinated in Gaul by some of his own people
which he was “distracted” by some of the local women.

He was the progenitor of the very successful Ui Néill,

or O”Neill dynasty, but the main point here is the fact that
he was Eochaid’s youngest son, and probably would not have
come to power except by way of a powerful omen: Once the
five sons of Eochaid hunted and while they did developed a
thirst. In a clearing they came upon an old hag “with grey
hair, black skin and green teeth (a reflection of the sea-
habitat).” She offered them water in exchange for a kiss.
The three elder boys refused, but Fiachtra pecked her
modestly on the cheek. At this she predicted that he would
reign briefly at Tara. Hearing this Niall must have
suspected her identity and gave her a full fledged buss on
the lips. She demanded intercourse and they retired into the
woods where she shape-changed into a beautiful raven-
haired beauty who identified herself as Flaithius, the
“Chieftainess.” After a successful romp in the moss, this
mhorrigan told Niall that his line of kings would be the
most successful in the history of Eiru.

NIAMH. (Nee-av), The daughter of Manann mac Ler who

appeared to Osgar on the shores of Lake Lena and suggested
he accompany her to her homeland, Tir Tairnigri. Since the
Féinn were all dead, Osgar agreed and lived in the Land of
the Daughter of the Thunder taking her as his lover. After
three weeks he returned to Ireland but found that three
hundred years had passed in the Upper World.

NIBE. a Tuathan from the sidhe Breg. In his day he was

considered one of the nine best pipe-players in the world.

NIC, a prefix which is the female patronym, MG. nee, Ir. ni,
MIr. ini, this an abbreviation of the OIr. ingean, now written
as inghean or nighean and sometimes as ui. This word
originally implied a “grand-daughter” and used to be seen in
full as inghean mhic or ni mhic, see mac and magh. Based on
the name of the old goddess Mhorrigan. In the elder days the
female clann name Ne Ve Kenze was the equivalent of the
male Mac Kenze. Note the related nigh, to wash, and the Eng.
nick and Auld Nick, the latter the Germ. Nix, a spirit of the
water, the sea-name for Odin. Skr. nij, clean. See G. niuc
and entries immediately below.

NIGH, purify, wash in water.

NIGHEAG BHEAG A’ BHROIN, (First word pronounced neeyah-

e), “the sorrowful little washer,” a water-spirit who used
to forecast death by washing the shrouds, or clothing, of the
soon-to-expire in a mountain stream. See next.

NIGHEAG NAH-ACH, NIGHEAG NAH-ATH, nighean, daughter,

Washer-woman, originally inghean; nah-ach, "at the ford," a
banshee, the predictor of death. Her prototype was the
goddess Mhorrigan. This is the spirit that haunted remote
upland streams in Ireland and Scotland, washing the blood-
soaked garments of those destined to die.

Some have said that these haunts were the ghosts of

women dead at childbirth, fated to perform this duty until
the date when they would normally have died. Clearly this
was not the case for the Ulster hero named Cúchullain,
whose banshee is known to have been the goddess Mhorrigan;
nor is it the case for her namesakes in Clan Morgan, also
known as Mackay. See next entry. The equivalent of the male
nathair mara.

"They are usually represented as short and stumpy

with shaggy hair. dark wrinkled faces, little deep-set eyes,
but bright as carbuncles. Their voices are cracked and
hollow; their hands have claws like a cat's; their feet are
horny like those of a goat. They are expert smiths and
coiners; they are said to have great treasures in the
barrows or weems (hollow hills) in which they dwell, and of
which they are regarded the builders. They dance round
them by night, and woe to the belated peasant who, passing
by, is forced to join in their roundal; he usually dies of
exhaustion." Wedneday is their holiday, the first Wednesday
in May their annual festival, which they celebrate with
dancing, singing and music. They have the same aversion to
holy things as the morrigan; like them they can foretell
events. The nighean is always furnished with a large
leathern purse, which is said to be full of gold, but those
who have succeeded in wrestling it away, have found
nothing better than locks of hair and a pair of scissors.
These are the same sidh, or trows, who warn some men of
death by appearing in the night as globes of fire or as
wraiths which wail or track the path which the funeral
cortege will follow from home or church to the grave.

NIMHIR, venom, a serpent.

NI'N RUAIRI 'IC FHERAGHUIS, the “Red-headed Sigh Washer-

woman of Clan Fergus;” their banshee or death-bane. She is
supposed to have dwelt at Airigh Dhubh ni'in Ruari, the so-
called "black-sheiling", a small hillock still seen on North
Uist. She was a descendant of the entirely human Aonghus
Og, Lord of the Isles in 1308. A baobh and shepherdess, she
had charge of the lambs at the time of tearbadh or
“weaning.” Her personal nemesis was the elder-god Dudair
(see separate entry) who made repeated attempts to take
her spirit by isolating her from running water, which he
could not cross. In one instance where he managed this her
guileamanas, or confidence, did not forsake her. She always
carried a sprig of mistletoe and tossing this at a peat-bank
she yelled "The object of your interest is now on yonder
bank, take it!" Mistaking this for her soul, he pounced upon
it and carried it off while the witch-lady went quietly on
her way shepherding her lambs. This washer-woman at the
ford foresaw the history of her island and recounted it in
song:

I saw the era of the Sleat man;

I saw the era of the Harris man;
I saw the era of the Grim man;
I saw the era of the Caithness man

Good that I shall not live to see the era of woe;

Good that I shall not see the era of blackness;
Good, especially, that I shall not see the era of
the Clerk
The eras of affliction for the land of Uist.

As it happened her omens proved correct. She herself

died in 1498. The rulers of Clan Fergus after her time were,
successively, the Harris, Grim and Caithness men, the last
of whom was killed in 1540. When they were gone, control
of the island passed into the hands of southern bureaucrats.
See above entry.

NINIAN, “Constant,” the first historic missionary to

Scotland, Saint Ninian arrived at Whithorn, south Galloway
while legions still manned the "Roman wall." He is supposed
to have been the son of a Pict, born on Solway Firth and
taken to Rome as a hostage in 370. In Imperial Rome, he
became a Christian and was made a bishop in 394. After
that, he was sent back home to preach the Faith. St. Aelred
of Rievaulx, who wrote Ninian's biography in the twelfth
century, said that Ninian's community at Whithorn preached
to the Picts by travelling about the coast in three-man
coracle.

In Scotland, Ninian was immediately opposed by King

Tudvallus, but won him over after curing him of an illness.
He also impressed the people of Galloway by restoring the
life of a man apparently dead after having been
disembowelled by a bull. Like the "saints" Aldhelm and
Germanicus, Ninian caused a week-old child to "speak" so
that one of his monks could be relieved of a paternity-suit.

Like the pagan god Aod, this Christian had a heated

personality and as he sat reading by the road, in a
rainstorm, his book and person remained dry except when
his thoughts were "tickled by a suggestion from the devil."
His pastoral bell is preserved at his seat in Edinburgh
although he is credited with having erected a second church
at Stirling. Bede established a rival church at Kirkcudbright,
apparently disagreeing with Ninian's keeping of Easter on
the Celtic rather than the Roman date. In 730, the Saxon
Church forced the Gaelic Church to follow its reckoning of
the appropriate time for the festival, and a party of monks,
refusing to obey, fled to Loch Lomond. Possibly put out of
sorts by this politicking Ninian retired to a cave at
Glasserton where he gave himself over to prayer. At
Kirkmaiden an ancient cave-chapel may still be seen, and
his name is attached to it. He died in 432 and was buried
before the altar of his church. Unfortunately St. Ninian's
cave has taken a beating from tourists and is now locked
and barred. Relics of the bronze age were found in this
place: stone axe heads, spindle whorls and hammer heads,
showing that it was occupied long before Ninian took an
interest in it. Tales of the Daoine sidh are still associated
with these souterrains and Ninian may have selected the
place with this in mind.

NIOS. NEAS. weasel, OIr. ness, weasel, a creature "up from

below." A sea-serpent. From this we have the Loch Ness
Monster and the name applied to many Scottish headlands.
The AS is naes, akin to ON. nes, nose. Hence, a point of
land, a promontory, a headland. Thus, the combining word
seen in Sheer-ness and similar place-names. Sea-serpents
were observed to have extra large noses or snouts. Also an
enchanted spear-shaft fashioned by Goibniu for the warrior
who seduced his wife. The spells he chanted over this
weapon made it irresistible in battle but caused it to burst
out in an all-consuming flame when it ceased to be used.

The Norse vikings must have had an easy association

with the old death-gods, for they sailed at night with fires
built behind their dragon-prows. By the light of day it was
seen that their craft and the sails were painted blue, the
colour preferred by the sea-gods. Emblazoned on the sails
the Celts often saw the raven image, the totem of An
Domhain (and the land-god Odin). Odin was represented as a
sea-god under the name Niùcr , the Middle-English form
being Nookr. From these we have “Old Nick,” a synonym for
the Devil. In the mythology of the Faeroes, which gradually
became a Norse outpost, Odin or Nikkr, was the “Lord of the
Northern Mountains,” a deity quite often represented in his
son, the sun-god Baldur. In the Orkneys, where the ancient
relationships became uncertain, this death-lord was called
Balkin (the kin of the Bal or Bil). When Reginald Scot
visited this island in the seventeenth century he heard
“many wonderful and incredible things” of this deity: “He
was shaped like a satyr, and fed upon the air (Odin was
originally conceived as a god of the upper air, the lord of
the north winds). He had wife and children to the number of
twelve thousand (reflecting the Viking habit of rape), which
were the brood of the Northern Fairies (i.e. elfs or sidhe)
inhabiting Southerland (Sutherland) and Catenes
(Caithness).”

In spite of their Norse connections it was held that

the side-hill folk who lived in the mountains of Pomonia
(the largest of the Orkneys) spoke ancient Irish or Gaelic.
Anglo-Saxon naes, nose, referring to the fact that its head
had this predominant feature. Also know as the neck from
another prominent characteristic. Possibly related to the
Old Gaelic ness, a wound from its voracious appetite. The
nessa did not differ substantially from the nicca, or nicks,
but were generally seen as the young of the species, having
less length and girth, and thus found coasting closer the
land, even entering lochs or embayments.

The Loch Ness Monster Nessie is representative of

this class of creatures. See nuckalavee, nick, sea-serpent
etc. A classic sighting of a ness was made by the entire
crew of the schooner Madagascar just before it docked to
load coal at Lubec , Maine on the morning of July 28, 190l.
The ship was moving through the Bay of Fundy at eight
knots when the watch warned of an object in the water,
which at first appeared to be a floating log. Within "a sea-
biscuit" of the object, sailors were astonished to see this
apparently inanimate object raise a snake like head and
glide sinuously away from the ship. The crew all agreed
that the animal was snake-like thirty feet in length and
covered with scales, which refracted light so that parts
appeared green and other areas brown. There were spinal
points all along the back and a huge dorsal fin just below
the head; this was thick, dark in colour, and about the size
of a man's hand. The body was estimated to have a diameter
of two feet, tapering slightly beyond the head and
drastically toward the tail. The men watched it for a half
hour as it made "fast skipping motions" through the water.
Edward Ray told "The Saint Croix Courier" of Saint Stephen,
New Brunswick, that he had been a seaman for nine years
and had never seen anything on or in the sea that looked like
this animal. Asked if it might be feasible to trap the
creature, Ray guessed that it would be dangerous to
attempt this or to injure it with a harpoon.

The "Saint Andrews Beacon" reported a similar

sighting, August 2, 1906. This time the serpent was seen
very near land by Theobold Rooney the keeper of Sand Reef
Light. This man supposed that the monster had been drawn
into shallower water following a school of herring. After a
fast entry into the approaches of Saint Andrew's harbour,
the serpent put about and moved slowly away in the
direction of Clam Cove. Rooney said the animal was
twenty-five to thirty feet in length, and the diameter of a
large weir stake. The keeper said he might have taken it for
a shark, but it lacked a dorsal fin and kicked up a whale-like
tail before diving out of sight. Having heard of these
sightings the naturalist-historian William F. Ganong came
to the area to assess their validity: "For the past few
summers the local papers have often reported the
appearance of sea-serpents at Passamaquoddy and the Saint
Croix (River). The animal is really there but is according to
testimony of observant persons, a White Whale...Locally it is
stated that it came into the Bay of Fundy with war-ships
during the Champlain celebrationis, June 25, 1905...the
animal was also seen in the bay at least one season before
1905." If this was a whale it was a very emaciated
example!

NIUC, a corner, cf. Scand. neuk, the MEng. nok. Eng is the
borrower. See above entry.

NIUL, NIALL, root-word niata, champion. Borrowed from

Gaelic into Norse as Njall, Njal, hence into English as Nigel.
The latter a "learned" spelling of Neil, whence Nelson.
Supposedly named for Niul, said named after the river Nile
in Egypt. A progenitor of the Scots, married to a daughter
of the pharaoh whose name was Scota. See Niallig.

NIUL NOIGHIALLACH, the son of Eochaid mac Muchtra,

himself the twelfth king to bear the name Eochaid in that
dominion. Niul of Munster had a pedigree reaching back to
Ith son of Bregon so and was in the line of succession for
the high-kingship except for the fact that he was a goill
after the fashion of the Cailleach bheurr. That lady was
often said to possess a single virulent eye, and this was
also the case with the king. The term goill embraces more
than this “blemish” including general distortions of the
face, blubber lips, inane immobile grins, pock-marks, the
wry-mouthed condition, crossed-eyes and similar genetic or
accidental “problems.” The people of Munster all suffered
from their relationships with the Fomors, and the king more
than others since this “defect” barred him from the throne
at Tara.

NODHA, new, after the “new god” Nuada. Nodh, knowledge,

intelligence, information. Noble, excellent. With global
warming, the Upper Palaeolithic hunters, whose ancestors
had managed to adapt to life on a tundra, saw their
traditional plants and animals retreating northward.
Mesolithic man, still essentially a hunter and gatherer, had
to follow them or learn new tricks, and some did, hunting
the sea for fish while they followed land trails seeking
small game. The island of Ireland was by now cut off from
any land bridges and those who travelled there had to come
by sea. Some fairly sophisticated craft must have been
available sometime before the Thermal Maximum in 8,000
B.C. for the ancient tome known as the Cin na Drom-Snechta
which no longer exists, but is quoted in the Book of
Balleymote, tells us that Hibernia, or Ireland, was
approached by intending colonists just prior to the great
World Flood. The leader of the expedition was a remarkable
woman whose maiden name is given as h’Erni , and this is
perhaps the source of Eriu, the early Irish name for Ireland.
Her married name seems to have been Banbha Cass-ir , or
Cesair often too loosely translated as the “Lady Caesar.”
She was the daughter of Bith, who is sometimes described
as “a son of Nodha.”

NOIDHIU. The son of the woman named Fingel whose parents

posted guards about her to prevent premature pregnancy.
She was “visited” by a god and gave birth to an infant who
was only saved from death when he uttered nine wise
judgements. As a result he was nicknamed Noidhiu Naoi
mBreathach, or “Noidhiu of the Nine Judgements.”

NOINDEN, the ninth hour. The “curse” of birth-pains put on

the men of Ulster by the goddess Macha.

NOIN REULT, evening star. Associated with the Celtic

goddesses.

NOIR, the east, from OIr. an-air, before (the morning sun).
NOIN, noon, genitive nona, evening, noon, Cy. nawn, similar
to Lat. nona, the ninth hour of the day, i.e three o’clock.

NOLLAIG (nol-ik), Ir. nodlog, EIr. notlaic, sometimes said

from Latin natalicia, the Nativity of Christ, Christmas Day,
December 25. The derivation is nodha, new, corresponding
with nuadh, OIr, nue, the Latin novus, the English word new.
+ laigh, lie abed, thus the possible interpretation "the new
god found in a manger." But note that the first word names
the old god Nuada, one of the Gaelic creator-gods. His twin
was Lugh or Leug or Ugh, whose name corresponds with the
second portion of Nollaig. Notice the related word ugh or
uigh, an egg, a cove, related to the Norse vik, from which
the Gaelic uigean, a fugitive or wanderer, and the English
witch, conferring with Woden.

R.C. Maclagan says that the ON form is Jól, “Yule is in

inception the festival of the hailing of the New Year; and if
so, Odin’s name of Julvatter (Yule-father) is in its genesis
the same as that of (the Roman) Jupiter - Io-pater.” Also
note the Gaelic nuall, the Middle English yol, English yell,
the Anglo-Norman noel. This word is at least related to the
Anglo-Saxon geohhol (earth-holers or inhabitants of earth),
from which was also derived geola, the name of one of their
winter months. The Swedes have a similar word, Jul, which
they now use to describe the Christmas season, and this is
similar to the Danish, Juul. All of these may be akin to the
Latin joculus, a diminution of jocus (a joke, sport, jest or
pastime). Nollaig is now distinguished as Nollaig Mhor, the
Big Yule, December 25, and Nollaig Bheag, Little Yule, New
Years Day.

The mummers who are active at these times are

called the gillean Nollaig or Yule lads. Occasionally these
goisearan or disguisers, are termed the nuall airean or
rejoicers. Those who sing at first-footing are the fir duan
or song men. "While Thor is the embodiment of Northern
activity, Loki represents recreation, and the close
companionship between the two gods shows very plainly
how our ancestors realized that both were necessary to
mankind. Thor is ever busy and ever in earnest, but Loki
makes fun of everything...As a personification of fire as
well as of mischief, Loki (l

ightning) is often seen with Thor (thunder)." (The

Norsemen, pp. 216). This also applies when transferred to
Nuada/Lugh, who are sometimes identified as the sun and
the moon gods, and the causative agents in thunder and
lightning, which was said to result from their battle play in
the sky. Notice that Lokki was sometimes identified as "the
brother of Odin." Additionally, Ygg, or Egg or Ugh was one of
the numerous names applied to Odin after he displaced
Lokki, Thor and Tyrr as the dominant deity of northwestern
Europe. As for Christmas Day, it was quite blatantly stolen
from the pagan gods since it bears no relationship to the
birthday of Jesus Christ.

Anciently, the month in which it occurred was named,

along with the day, as the Noll, Noel, Juul, Yell or Yule in the
various languages of Europe. Guerber says that the Yule was
principally "Thor's month", although secondary toasts were
made to Frey and Odin and Frigga. The old descriptive "Yell",
which has survived as a word in English, helps to categorize
it as a time for rejoicing at the return of the sun after mid-
winter. Yule also confers with wheel, and the lowland
Scottish word wymss, as the sun was thought of as a sphere
wheeled across the sky in an invisible chariot. "The first
Christian missionaries, perceiving the extreme popularity
of the feast, thought it best to encourage drinking to the
health of the Lord and his twelve apostles when they began
to convert the northern Heathens." (The Norsemen, p. 125).

This holiday was never as important in the herding

districts of Scotland, excepting regions invaded by the
Norse. In general, Christmas is no more than a religious
holiday in modern Scotland, most of the riotous behaviour
having been reserved to the Hogmanay at the New Year. The
Gospels say nothing of the time of year when Christ was
born, and accordingly the early Church saw no need to
commemorate it. In time, however, the Christians living in
Egypt somehow settled on the sixth of January as the proper
time for the Nativity. An early Christian writer has said:
"The reason why the fathers (of the Church) transferred the
celebration of the sixth of January to the twenty-fifth of
December was this. It was a custom of the heathen to
celebrate on the same twenty-fifth of December the
birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights.

In those solemnities the Christians also took part;

accordingly the fathers took counsel and resolved that the
true Nativity should be solemnized on that day and the
Epiphany on the sixth day of January (the traditional end of
Yule)." The Christians did as much as possible to confuse
matters by referring to their God as "the Son (or Sun) of
Righteousness" thus magically embracing those in the
pagan camps. Being an ascetic religion Christianity was
unhappy with the yelling and drinking and whoring that
accompanied "Christ's Birthday", and the clerics worked,
first to reduce the riotousness to Christmas Day itself, and
have been trying ever since to eliminate the secular
elements of the day.

The Scandinavians, who were married and assimilated

into the Scottish clans, considered the Yule the penultimate
celebration in terms of feasting, dancing and drinking. In
honour of the Vananian god Frey, who was the successor to
Odin, boar's flesh was eaten. Crowned with laurel and
rosemary, the animal's head was presented in the banquet
hall with great ceremony. The paternal head of each tribe
and family laid his hand upon this "boar of atonement"
swearing to be faithful to his kin and fulfil all promised
obligations to the tribe. In addition to consuming this
symbol of the godhead, each adult male, starting with the
king would state his Yultide promise (the equivalent of New
Year's resolutions), always toasting some major or minor
god in the process. Because there were many men in a
village, the feast typically ended with boring monologues,
hence the relationship between the words boar and bore, not
to mention beer, which derives from the same source. That
source, by the way is the god Borr, first born of Buri, the
provider. The Scots may not have understood the religious
aspects of this particular fire-feast, but they did share the
spirit of the season, as the following ballad makes clear:

Atween Yule and Year mas,

Auld wives shouldna spin;
And nae house should be waterless
Where midans lie within.

The water referred to whisky and "midans" translates

as "maidens". The time from Yule to Yearmas, the "Daft
Days" has untidy connotations. The old meaning of the word
was not "mentally incompetent", but one who was
"frolicsome or merry". The serious side of the celebration of
Yule is seen in the custom of creating the Yule Boar, a
practice which is, or was, seen in Scotland. The corn from
the last sheaf of the harvest was, in some places, made
into a cake, which the Scots call oat-cake or bannoch bread.
In much earlier times, this was understood to literally
embody the corn-spirit or even Donart or Thor, in the same
way that the elements of the mass embody the blood and
body of the Christ.

All through Yule, the Boar was expected to remain

upon the festive table. Often it was kept until the sowing
time when part of it was mixed with the seed for the new
crop and the rest given to the plough man, horses and oxen
to eat. Since these animals voided their wastes in the
fields, the god was returned to his summer-place where he
might generate a full-harvest. Before this was done, a real
boar was sacrificed as a representative of Frey or Thor.
Earlier still, it may be suspected that men were dressed
after the fashion of a boar and killed with a knife. This is
inferred from a "Christmas custom" still observed in
Sweden, where a man wrapped in skins enters the room
bearing straws clasped between his teeth, in imitation of
boar bristles. An old woman, her face blackened,
approaches and pretends to cut out his heart. It is known
that the Old Norse devoted as much as a month to the
festival of Yule, and in the north it is unquestioned that this
is still the "greatest feast in the year". This also holds for
those parts of Scotland which have close Scandinavian ties,
notably, the Orkneys, Shetlands and a few of The Western
Isles. Every year, on the last Tuesday of January, the
residents of Lerwick, in the Shetlands, hoist the raven
banner of Odin from the town hall indicating the start of
Up-Helly-Aa (Hel's Island Festival). This fire-festival used
to last through "three hectic weeks", but after the Yule was
replaced by Christermas, this period became one of prayer,
fasting and introspection, which ended on the twenty-fourth
night after December twenty-fifth. To mark the end of
these boring holy days, the Shetlanders set a great bonfire
after the pattern of their forbearers, reverting to social
customs which are still a part of social life in these
islands.

NOS, custom, knowledgem the first of anything, from nua,

new, after the god-king Nuada.

NUADA, NUADH (nooda), nua, new, modern, OIr. nue, Cy.

newydd, OBr. neuud, Latin novus, Eng. new. The god of the
new moon, co-creator of the universe with the help of his
brother Lugh. The "new god" may correspond with the Norse
god Thor, or one of his usurpers, either Tyrr or Odin. In
Gaelic mythology he led the Tuatha daoine against the
Firbolge until he was "blemished" by losing his right arm in
battle. This makes him the equal of Tyrr who was also left-
handed having left the other arm to the mouth of the Fenris-
wolf. This god was known to the Welsh as Nudd or Llud, and
the Romans identified him as Nodens. He had a temple on
the present site of St. Paul's in London and the entrance to
it was Lude’s Geat, now termed Ludgate. Note also the old
Gallic combination name Novio-magus, which is seen in
Gaelic as nuadh-magh, a “new-field.” There are nine places
known to have had this name in antiquity; six were in
France, one in Belgium, one in the Rhineland and one in the
Palatine.

NUAL, NUALL, NUAIL, the Eng. wail. Cofers with nollaig, the
Yell-tide or Yuletide. nuail is obsolete, to roar or howl.
Nuall, praise, lamentation, roaring, howling, lowing,
shrieking, a low but persistent sound, screech of an owl.
Opinion, hail, incantation, sound made by a wild cat, a freak.

As we have noted the agricultural New Year

commenced with the resurgence of the sun after it reached
its low point in the sky in the month of December. The
Gaels called this month Dudlachd and the Old Norse Yoll
(wheel) or Yule. The opening day of the Yule was termed
handsel, from the habit of using a handshake to seal
bargains on this day, which was, ironically, devoted to Odin,
"Oath-Breaker".

The Norse took this holiday to Scotland in the person

of invaders and "broken-men" and it gradually attained the
ritual importance of Oidche Challainn (Hogamanay) and a'
Bhliadhn" Ur (The New Year). In Scandinavia the Old Norse
roasted the god Frey in the form of the boar, which was his
totem animal. At the Yule feast the head of each family
laid his hand upon this sacred "boar of atonement".
admitting past errors, and swearing faithfulness to king,
tribe and family. As toasts followed each handsel, and
every person was expected to participate, elaborate
promises were made in the final hours of the ceremony. A
bit of yelling inevitably followed! There were twelve
equally dissolute days marking this Yule holiday, which the
Christian missionaries attempted to sweep into one called
Christ's Mass, or Christmas. They had little luck reforming
the secular part of the rule but did manage to have the
toasts addressed to the Twelve Apostles rather than the
pagan gods.

NUALL AIREAN, nuall, a howling, a cry, freakish, shrill;

airean, a herdsman, a ploughman, Ir. oireamh, a ploughman,
said derived from the mythic Milesian Eremon, Airem(on),
from the Ayran root-word ar, a plough. A side-form of the
god Lugh, Ugh or Hugh.

NUAS, down from on high, from above, bottom, ground. Ir.

anuas. See uasal. Nuathaig, obs. heaven.

NUINEAN, obs. A dwarf. Based on nuin, ash-tree.