T, tinne, the holly. Tuesday.

Truith, the starling; temen,

deep grey; July 8 until August 4.

TA, obs. water. Thus words such as tabach, marine.

T-OSGAR, AN, the spirit of life; the life force. Men were
thought born with a finite life-spirit, which could be
replenished but not to the point of immortality. Death was
the draining of the final dredges of this source of power.

TABH, TAIBH, the sea, the ocean, from ON. haaf, the open sea
as opposed to inland or enclosed seas. In Norse mythology
mer-people are referred to as the haafmannr. See tabhs.

TABH, TABHALL, a sling, EIr. taball, a casting device, root

tab, to fire, to sling, Eng. stab. Note next.

TÁBHALL-LORG. Tablet staff, the wooden repositories for

records, poetry, genealogy and history. Similar to the
ollamhs, which were kept on simple rods of wood. The lorg
were distinguished as taibhli-filidh, “poet’s staffs;”
tamlorga filidh, “death staffs,” and flesc filidh, “feathered
staffs.” The Brehon Laws said that none but poets could
carry such property. Made of birch or beech, these tablets
could be opened in the fashion of a fan. In a few instances
yew wood was preferred. See ogham.

TABHS, TAIBHS, TAIBHSE, a ghost, or spirit, of the dead; a

ghost of the living; the visible totem animal of an
individual. OIr. taidbse, a vision, closely allied with the
English phantom. Men were believed accompanied
throughout their lives by invisible external souls termed
the bafinne. At the approach of death these cowalkers
appeared first to the victim and then approached his
relatives to inform them of the passing. Eigheach taibhse an
nochd, the cry of a spiritual manifestation. Taibhsean an t-
sleibh, the “ghosts of the moor.” Taibhseireireachd, the
ability to perceive the ghost world, “second-sight.” the
observation of the unseeen world. The warder of spirits of
the dead was believed to be the detatched soul of the last
person dead and buried in a given community. Guardianship
of this kind was never considered an enviable posting and
when two men died at about the same time their relatives
struggled mightily to get their man or woman underground
first. See fair’e chlaidh.

TABHSEAR, TAIBHSEAR, a person gifted with the two sights,

taibhs, apparition; ear, eastern. See an dara selladh.
Related to the English seer. Dr. Keith Norman Macdonald
speaks of an example of the second sight on the Isle of
Skye: "At that time merry-making at harvest-homes was
much more common than at the present day. A very
handsome and well known couple were entertaining their
workers and friends and, and everybody was as happy as
possible. Among (the guests) was a well known taibhsear,
or “second-sight seer,” who was noticed by a friend to turn
ghastly pale all of a sudden and left the room. His friend
followed him and asked what was the matter. The seer
replied, "It does not concern you, but before long a tragic
event will take place in this house." He had seen the
hostess in her shroud. A fortnight after this occurrence the
hostess, who was apparently in the best of health, was
dressing to go out in a party when suddenly she dropped
down dead in the bedroom." (Celtic Magazine, 1901, p. 147).

TABHSEAR, TAIBHSEAR BREAMAS, the Brahan Seer; bra,

mill-stone. Holed stones were often considered peep-holes
into the unseen world. Brahan Castle was long the
residence of the Mackenzies of Seaforth. Their doom was
said predicted with uncanny accuracy by "Sallow" Kenneth,
"the Brahan Seer", who used his "long sight" to perceive the
Count of Seaforth in bed with some French ladies. When he
relayed this information to his mistress she reacted by
having the soothsayer confined in a spiked barrel and rolled
down a hill. Her husband arrived too late to save the
magician from cursing the family with his dying breath.
This is a colourful but unlikely tale since there is record of
the seer's execution before the Earldom was created: In
January 1577 a writ was issued to "apprehend, imprison and
try Kenneth, alias Kennoch Owir, principal or leader in the
art of magic."

TABHSHEIS, the bull feast. A ceremony in which a high

druid would eat the flesh of a bull and drink its blood.
Sleeping with indigestion, this individual dreamed of the
next high-king. It was thought that if he lied about things
seen in the dream the gods would punish him. As part of the
rites the king-to-be bathed in bull’s blood and ate and drank
its substance. The bull-god was Lugh. See tarbh.

TABHLEIS, TAIBHLEIS, obsolete form of taileasg, a board

game, fidchell, similar to the English word tables.
Literally, "nicked at the tables," or “Taken to the cleaners.”
Having reference to its use as a tool of gaming.

TACHAIR, meet, happen. Manx taghyrt, an accident, a

happening, from to + car, “to turn.” See next.

TACHARAN, a ghost, the yelling of a ghost; an orphan, one

alone in the world. Particularly the spiritual remnant, or
unattached befinn, of an unbaptized child.

TACHARRA, changeling, a dwarf or pigmy.

TADG, TADHG MAC CIAN, (Teig), A Poet, Many-Layered. Deep.

The son of Cian, king of Munster. He allied himself with
Cormac mac Art and was wounded in battle against the
Ulstermen. Cormac promised him whatever land he could
encircle with his chariot immediately after the battle.
Cormac knew that Tadhg coveted Tara, which, at that time,
came complete with the high-kingship of Ireland. Since the
hero was swooning from battle wounds, the king was able to
bribe Tadhg’s charioteer to describe a path that would cut
off Tara. Angered by this duplicity Tadhg slew his driver.

As heir to a portion of Munster Tadhg made the rounds

of his father’s kingdom, and happened to wander into Beire
do Bhunadas in the far west of that land when a Fomorian
pirate named Cathmann surrounded his party and took his
wife Liban and his two brothers as slaves. Tadhg managed
to cut himself free of his enemies and afterwards ordered
the building of a curragh suitable for a long ocean-voyage
into the western islands. “Very strong it was and had forty
ox-hides on of red leather that had been soaked in bark. It
was fitted with masts, and oars and pitch, and everything
that was wanting. And they put every sort of meat and drink
and of clothes in it, that would last them through the length
of as year. It is said that they sailed beyond sight of all
land and then rowed westward through twenty days and
nights and finally came “to high land having a smooth
coast.”

Here, Tadhg and thirty of his men scouted the land but
found vacant farms, wild sheep and a belligerent ram. Tadhg
made a lucky cast of his spear and impaled and killed the
animal. Afterwards “they found the bones of very big men on
the island but did not know if they had died of sickness or
were killed by the rams.” Leaving this island they sailed to
two other islands where they noted birds, somewhat like
blackbirds but the size of eagles “with red and green
heads.” Their nests contained eggs that were coloured blue
and crimson, and when they ate some they were troubled by
allergic skin reactions. The “foreigner” who was their pilot
said that he had come this way before, but now the ships
turned into unknown waters through which they passed for a
period of six weeks. When the wind rose the voyagers said
that its sound was like that of many tramping feet, “and it
piles up in great mountains which were hard to climb.”

Finally, the curragh came into safer waters and

beached at a land where there was a beautiful inlet
surrounded by green trees. It was said that the bottom of
the estuary was of a glittering silvery sand. Two dozen
explorers set out for the hinterland where they found
fruiting apple trees, oak trees and hazels overburdened with
nuts. Inland, they encountered three fortresses on hills
overlooking a plain, and visited each in turn, where they
encountered Gaelic heroes long dead. They visited last with
the mythic Clidona and remained as her guests for a year.
Afterwards they departed for Ireland led by a company of
magical birds which guided them into the Atlantic. As they
sailed away the Dead Isles became veiled in “druidic mists
and they were plunged into a deep sleep which continued
until they arrived at the Fomorian island of Fresen, which
was ruled by their enemy, the king called Cathmann. After a
hard fight Tadg liberated his wife and brothers and all
returned safely to Ireland.

TADG MAC NUADA. A druid and the father of Murna of the

White Neck. She was the mother of the famed Fionn mac
Cumhail. See Cumhail and Murna.

TAGHAIRM, TAIGHAIRM, an echo, divination by listening to

the fall of water. Ir. toghairm, a summons or petition, from
OIr. togairm, an invocation addressed to the gods. From to +
gairm, a call to the sky. Related is tagradh, a ghost.

Said to be "the most savage of all sorcery." Described

in A.J. Macdonald's book as "the most devastating and
certain but also the most difficult (magic)." He defines it
as "the spirit-call". The story-teller, Gary Hugh of Uist,
says that a prince of the islands divided his inheritance
between two daughters. Olga received Griminish and the
west of Uist while Val was given Vallay and lands in the
north. Olga, jealous of her sister on account of her great
beauty, decided to eliminate her using sorcery. She made
enquiries of the greatest magicians and hired Grimm. While
Val and her retainers were at sea in a longship, the
magician called upon a taghairm of rats and these spirits
stirred up a violent storm that drowned all in the tidal
channel separating Rona and Grimsay. Val's nurse-maid
became suspicious of the situation when Grimm was given
Val's inheritance as his sorcerer's fee. She led resistance
against Grimm and he and his forces were cut down at the
River Bafinn. Olga was banished to a rocky ledge named
Olga's Chair looking out over Sgrifearnach, ironically the
place where the taghairm had been set in motion.

In his book, Occult Elements, the Rev. Norman

MacDonald says that the last taghairm was performed on the
Isle of Skye during the 1770's. "Obviously, the taghairm,
some forms of which could be used to bring about the
realization of evil wishes, was very strongly frowned upon
by the Church... Carmichael provides a rather detailed
description of consulting an invisible oracle, which includes
the taghairm of cats (1695).

Mr. Alexander Cooper was one of his informants about

the use of this rite as it occurred on the island of
Lewis...the medium often reported severe after effects. In
this taghairm, the medium was sometimes wrapped in a
fresh cow-hide and left all night in a solitary place where
he was expected to receive a visit from invisible cat-
spirits who would provide an answer to his question or give
other aid in achieving an evil wish. In the taghairm of cats,
other activities were also involved...e.g. live cats would be
continuously roasted on a spit. A legion of devils would
then appear, in the guise of screeching black (spirit) cats
with their master at the head." (The Hebridean Connection,
p. 422).

The Camerons of Lochiel tell us that the “Yell of

Cats” was last heard on the Isle of Mull in the seventeenth
century. “After the completion of these rights the votaries
were entitled to demand two boons. A Cameron performed
the ceremony as instructed and was given a magical silver
shoe with instructions to place it on the left foot of every
son born to the family. This custom was observed until the
“fairy-shoe” was lost, and afterward Lochiel’s house was
consumed by fire in 1747. It was said that the silver birth-
right invariably fit all of the children, except one, up until
that time and that it protected them from premature death.
The one child whose fit was a misfit turned his back on a
foe at Sheriffmuir and was killed.

TAGRADH, a ghost, Sutherlandshire, Scotland. Confers with

the next.

TAIBHS, TAIBHSE, TAIBHSEACH, TABHS, (pronounced tav), an

apparition or ghost, Ir. taibhse, a vision, ghost, MIr.
taidhbais, OIr. taidbse, from to-ad-bat, that which “shows
itself.” a thing that “speaks.” related is the Eng. phantasm
and phantom, runners for the souls of men. Ghosts of living
men. Middle Irish, tadhbais a phantom. Tais, moist, damp,
dank, soft, untempered, faint-hearted, cold, without spirit.
pitiful. Taisbean, vision, revelation, apparition, taisdealach,
wanderer, person who scuds or vanishes, ghost, taise, dead
bodies, relics of saints, taisal, a ghost. The root word is
tad, that which speaks or otherwise shows itself from the
Old Irish togu, to taste strange things, to choose.

The equivalent of the English fetch, co-walker, runner,

soul-shadow, guardian, guardian angel, or double. a geist;
the ghost of a living or recently departed individual. The
Norse knew these as the fylgiar. More commonly, at
present, an apparition or ghost, a vision. Confers with the
English, phantasm. Runners were gifted upon people by the
creator-god at birth, prominent individuals being given
more than one protector. Taibhs acted as forerunners,
making their human aware of future events; as backrunners,
perceiving the past; and as spies on current events. They
possessed ultra-sensitive vision, hearing, touch, taste and
smell and travelled as invisible heralds or followers of
their ward, but could appear as a totem animal. They
sometimes materialized, leading to situations of bilocation.
The runner appeared before each individual or his relatives
as an omen of death, and they were then seen as fire-balls
called corpse-candles or gophers.

At night, the spirits of men entered their runners and

travelled with these wraiths. Bad dreams were seen as
reflections of quarrels between runners. The runner was
long absent in fevers and comas, and departed at death.
People who could project themselves into their taibhs were
said to have "an da shealladh", the two sights, and could
predict the future. Those who lacked a guardian were known
locally as jonahs, jinxers or "droch-chomhalaichean", rent-
payers to hell, and suffered bad luck. Witches supposedly
exchanged their runners for an imp, which took the visible
form of a familiar. The equivalent of the English fetch, co-
walker, soul-dancer, shadow-person, guardian or guardian
angel. Runners were gifted upon people at birth, important
souls receiving more than one protector. The taibh had the
capacity to view the past or future and to examine distant
events in the present.

They were said to house a supplementary soul and

travelled invisibly, or as a totem animal, with the person to
whom they were assigned. They sometimes materialized
giving rise to stories of bilocation, a person being seen at
widely separated places at the same time. The taibh
became a forerunner of death when it materialized face-to-
face with its master. As corpse-candles, gophers or
fetches, these runners took the form of fireballs which
warned relatives that a death was imminent in their family.
The taibh sometimes announced death by becoming a
knocker. At night the human soul was believed allied with
its cowalker and bad dreams were seen as reflections of
actually travels in some parallel world.

The runner, and its travelling companion, were long

absent in hallucinatory states, madness and comas, and
departed together at death. The few Gaels who could
project themselves into their taibh at will were said to
have "an da shelladh", or the two sights, an ability to see
the past and future. Those with no extra-sensory
perceptions were the "droch-chomhalaichean" and suffered
exceptionally bad luck. The boabh supposedly exchanged
these useful spirits for a imp of the Devil. Whether the
taibh was a normal runner, or a familiar of a witch, it
passed through the air in going about its business, and
existed at the sufferance of the god Kari and his kind. As
we have previously noted, familiars frequently showed their
attachment to the wind-spirits by taking the form of crows,
ravens, owls, eagles and other birds of the air.

Mary L. Fraser described the appearance of a

forerunner as a sea bird. Two Nova Scotian girls saw it on
the beach. When one tried to approach it the other warned,
"Leave it alone, don't touch it, it is a taibhs." "And what is
a taibhs?" asked the second girl. "It's a spirit," she replied,
"We're going to get some bad news." Discussing this
phenomena in 1652, Lord Larbolt noted: "there were men
and women and children who had the second sight; there
were children who had it but not the parents; some people
had it when they were old who did not have it in their youth;
none of them could tell how they came to have it; but all
said it was a gift of which they would gladly rid themselves
if possible. They saw the vision only as long as they kept
looking at it steadily. Those who had a strong heart usually
took a good look at it, and they could see it for a longer
time than the weak and timid. Those of strong will did not
have visions of the dead, but saw the living, and had no
doubt as to what they saw them do, or that what they saw
happen to them would actually occur just as they saw it.
They could not tell what time might intervene before the
events in question might take place; but those who were
accustomed to seeing such things had special rules by which
they could make a close guess. For example, they could tell
pretty well how soon a person was going to die by noting
how much of his form was covered by a shroud. If the whole
form was covered, the person was on his death bed."

While visions were seen by sighted people, this was

not a prerequisite; a man might be blind, but his second-
soul, housed in the taibhs, would not be afflicted. Thus, at
Saint John in 1777, a blind man, far distant from the scene,
was party to a vision of a judicial hanging. When he
reported the details to his family, they were able to
confirm that his description was complete and correct in
every detail.

While most of these phantoms reported to their host

by way of a vision, the other senses were sometimes
involved; thus there are reports of men and women who
tasted, touched, or smelled happenings from another time
and place, or by one means or another, observed events at a
distance.

Mary L. Fraser noticed that many of her fellows in

Antigonish County, Nova Scotia would not consider walking
in the centre of a road after dark "for fear of encountering
phantom funeral processions." Undertakers who worked
with the dead throughout the year, often found their horse
drawn hearses crowded about with a host of taibhs and
were jostled and felt the touch of these runners for the
dead as they tried to harness their horses. Often, the
person gifted with one type of extra-sensory perception
would lack other extra-sensory perceptions. Fraser noted
"the persistent tradition that the spirits of the living (but
soon to be dead) rehearse the making of coffins."

In English-speaking communities, this ability was

often termed clair-audience (as contrasted with
clairvoyance, or the ability to see hidden places and events.)
In researching her books on folklore, Helen Creighton
discovered that, "Many people are deaf to forerunners (that
is, unable to detect them at any level). Of six people sitting
in a room with the body of a man who had just died, only
three heard him call out the name of his wife."

Speaking of the taibhs as represented in the sense of

touch Joe Neil MacNeil said: "Somebody (from the
community) would say, rubbing his lips, "Indeed I feel the
itch of a kiss (or the itch of a dram) today," And somebody
else would say. "Oh, there is an itch in the palm of my right
hand." Or someone else would say, "Indeed I am going to
shake the hand of a stranger today." "And how do you mean
that?" "Oh, there is an itch in the palm of my right hand."
Or someone might say, "Surely I am going to receive money
in a short time. There is an itch in my left palm." And
another man would say, "And what does it mean when a
person's eye is quivering?" It was good news if it was the
right eye and it was poor news...if it was the left eye. And
another might say, "Lord how hot my ear is! It's almost on
fire with the warmth in it. Someone is talking about me."
People would ask the man, "Is it your right ear or your left
ear?" "Oh my left ear." "Oh, well then, that's good enough."
"And what is the reason for that?"..."Well, when the heat is
in your right ear, they are making a lot of talk about you,
and indeed it is probably not very good. But when the great
heat is in your left ear, they are making excuses for you." In
each of the above cases the taibhs would be considered the
agency responsible for the physical sensation, which was
intended as a message or a warning.

Mary L. Fraser said that "All the findings of Lord

Larbolt hold good for the second-sight in Nova Scotia,
where many people are endowed with the gift. Sometimes
whole families have it to a greater or lesser degree The old
people watched carefully the colours of the eyes of a child
when it was born. If it had, say, one eye blue and the other
brown, they were on the look-out for the second-sight; for
if at the end of a certain number of weeks the colours had
blended so that they could not tell which eye had been blue
and which brown, the child was sure to have the gift. If the
colours did not blend, the child was normal." Helen
Creighton found that the forerunner "usually deals with
sounds. Foresight, on the other hand is visual. On the island
of Cape Breton it is known as double vision or double sight
and people who have the gift are said to be double sighted.
It occurs here mostly among those of Scottish descent
although there are isolated instances among other
groups...Perhaps the word gift...is inappropriate. For a gift
is a pleasurable attribute. This is not, for the vision is
usually that of a funeral..."

At that, it has to be remembered that the taibhs was a

ghost of the living thus Malcolm Campbell, of Cape Breton,
contended that, "A forerunner can be when you see a living
person...A stranger was going to come. And you'd see a
forerunner of a stranger. It might have no connection with
death at all." Fraser commented that, "It was a popular
belief among the Celts that if you wished yourself anywhere
at night you were sure to appear there (at least as an
invisible spirit). If harm befell these apparitions, the rash
wisher was also harmed. The apparition could be (halted in
mid-journey) if to the words "I wish from the bottom of my
heart or soul I was there," there were added, "but not with
(this) night's wish." Thus it is shown that the taibhs was
considered an invisible double, a projection of a living
person. It was held that these spirits were gifted upon men
by the pagan gods, but they were counted as angels in
Christian times, and the Cape Breton historian A.A.
Mackenzie, assured his readers that the second-sight "is
from God. It is only he who can really know the future..."
The taibhs might be considered in this light, but these
spirit was suspected to be something less worthy than a
guardian angel.

A Shelburne man confronted by the "ghost" of a sister,

who was still among the living, gave his opinion as follows:
"I wouldn't tell about it (the sighting) for ten years (until
after her death) because it was considered bad luck to see a
person who wasn't there." It used to be said that the
mentally handicapped had the ability to travel through the
air "at will." These people also possessed runners, but their
night-worlds were thought to be less organized than that of
normal men. Thus, it is likely that their psychic-travel was
more a matter of random process than "a night's wish."

Mary L. Fraser tells the tale of an East Bay, Cape

Breton family, which possessed a set of hand-made horn-
spoons of a distinctive design when they lived in Scotland.
They were forced to leave the old country in hurried
circumstances, and these spoons were left behind. In the
new land their handicapped son was often observed to fall
into a trance-like state, and the family considered he was
then "on his travels." After one of these incidents, the
horn-spoons were found in his possession, and it was
assumed he had actually managed a passage to Scotland and
back, without the aid of a sailing ship. When he was a young
boy, Cleve Townsend, of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, says he
was twice warned away from dangerous situations by his
own forerunner, who came to him as a wraith-like boy. In
the first case, he was about to go fishing alone on the
harbour
when the taibhs materialized from the floor boards of the
wharf motioning him to
return home. He refused, but on the water, found his foot
caught up in the anchor rope and was hauled to the bottom
with it. On the way down, he saw the face of the ghost-boy
frowning his displeasure. This time, he escaped injury, but
when he encountered the same apparition in the cellar of his
own home, he retreated back up the stairs and "Forever
after that I never went against them."

The use of the word "them" in the above sentence is

informative for it was understood that the gifted individual
could often see much more than his or her personal runner.
Townsend made this clear by saying, "My father, he'd go
into the forest...and he'd sit down and talk with his own
father...people in that world...I never went with him (but) I
can still speak with my father...He's a young man now. When
he comes he comes first with his (familiar) beard and
everything as I knew him (in life). And then after I
recognize him, he changes to what he is...My mother, the
same." Usually messages of impending doom were left to the
taibhs, but while Townsend was working as a Cape Breton
steel plant in 1955 his runner warned him of approaching
doom. When he failed to take heed his father's ghost
approached him in broad daylight and said, "You stay on
(working in) that plant much longer, you'll be leaving your
bones there." After that, Townsend left steel-making for
faith healing. Commenting on his knowledge of unseen
worlds, the Cape Breton native said, "I've lived in two
worlds for over seventy years...the spirit world and the
earth plane. You don't see them unless God gives you
clairvoyant sight. I can hear them...At the beginning their
words are like listening to a mosquito, and after a time it
increases, until it's clear. And I can speak to them. That
world is not a different world than the world we see.
Sometimes when death comes to the physical body, the man
will go over and that world is so much like this that he
doesn't know where he is. He doesn't know he's out of body
and dead. The inner man will live on, a million years, a
hundred million years. There's no death for the inner man.
The inner man is what controls this body, not you...There's
no hell over there. But of course, if a man lives a pretty
good life, why he's going to find over there it's really good
and beautiful. But if he lives a life of sin and likes to kill
or something like that, his home over there will be the same
as down here, black as Egypt. And he may get one hundred
years or three hundred years of that."

Because of his gift, Cleve Townsend had expectations

of disaster when he heard three solid knocks, and noted,
"...when I was a boy, I wouldn't let anyone else go to the door
but me. I knew there was nobody there they could see...there
was always someone there from the other world...It would
be like to bring a warning about a death...I'd receive the
thoughts from their mind...I would see a form, see their face
before someone was to die."

Dan MacNeil of Cape Breton, had this to say of another

gifted individual "the Mackenzie girl of Christmas Island."
"... in the night-time there'd be a knock at the door and a
little hand would show on the wall. And she'd go in what
you'd call a trance...she'd go across to the other side...when
she'd wake up from that trance she'd tell her neighbours,
"this person, or that person died just a few minutes ago. I
saw him entering into heaven." And by gosh the neighbour
died at that certain time... They took her to priests and
bishops and everything, and it was no use...she used to be
like that every night...this last time, she went in a trance
and this old lady that died up there rear of Christmas
Island, she was in heaven. And she told her, she says, "You
tell your father to go to my son, and look in the old trunk in
the attic, and you'll find a ring there, "she says. "And get
that ring,and put it on your finger and this'll never happen to
you again." This amulet negated the unwanted gift of
precognition. Another local psychic saw no visions but
could predict the future: "Before a death I feel something
beside me all day and I can't get rid of it."

Those that could not see or touch the intangible often

heard sounds generated by the taibhs. Joe Neil MacNeil says:
"And people might hear a sound as if somebody was on the
threshold. They weren't hitting the door at all, you
understand, there was no knock on the door but you would
hear the stamping as if somebody put his foot on the
threshold though no one was there. And they would say. "It
won't be long before a stranger comes to the house."

When it was suspected that men were in danger on the

sea, their relatives used to consult gifted individuals, who
might send their runners out looking for signs of their fate.
Cleve Townsend was consulted by Mrs. Captain Dan Harris,
who once piloted a coal boat between the Island and Halifax.
After peering through the "eyes" of his informant, Townsend
was able to reassure her: "Mrs. Harris, I got them. They're
all right so far. But I can see them all working, cutting ice,
and the boat is leaning over, top heavy...Tomorrow morning,
ten o'clock, you look out the harbour and you'll see your
husband bringing in the towboat."

Townsend was also able employ his taibhs more

directly when he worked as a telegrapher aboard the ship
"Troja," which once sailed from Louisbourg to Saint John.
This craft was off Grand Manan when, "The engine room was
first to fill with water, the boiler room (went) dead, so
there couldn't be a message sent... (nevertheless) a message
was received in New Brunswick giving the exact longitude
and latitude, our exact position." The "Troja" was rescued,
and Mr. Townsend could only conclude that his cowalker had
somehow managed to act on his behalf.

Gifted individuals were thought related to the elder

gods of the sea, thus they were never allowed to drown or
die by fire. These "caul-bearers" or lucky individuals were
usually sought as ship-mates because it was believed that
their protective spirit shielded any ship on which the
individual travelled. On the other hand, the old gods were
sometimes held in contempt as devils and Townsend had to
admit that a sailor from Forchu, knowing his reputation as a
psychic and faith-healer, refused to travel with him aboard
ship.

In the best situations, the taibhs was engaged at being

helpful: Folklorist Mary L. Fraser claimed that her father
had had a vision of her mother as a bride, long before the
couple had met. She also noted that Bishop MacDonald, of
Antigonish Nova Scotia, had routinely had childhood visions
of his father returning from distant journeys accompanied
by his two black horses. Members of the family were
amazed when the eight-year-old's predictions always
proved correct.

The Nova Scotian writer Roland H. Sherwood claimed

that a guardian of an individual working in the United States
spoke to his mother at home in Nova Scotia, reassuring her
that he had escaped death in the Spanish Flu of 1918.
During the Halifax explosion, December 6, 1917, three
children managed to avoid death by playing truant for the
first time in their lives. Questioned about their actions,
none of them could explain why they had stayed clear of a
school that was almost totally demolished in the blast. All
referred to having vague feelings of unease at the idea of
going to school on that day, and one said simply "It didn't
feel right!" There are many other instances of men and
women who were warned, or even physically barred, from
dangerous situations. In the days of horse-and-wagon, the
animals often balked at bridges hidden by darkness and
storm. However, when men tried to lead their animals into
wash-outs they often ran up against invisible walls, were
warned by seeming voices in the wind, or were met by
apparitions which indicated that they should not continue on
the way.

At Antigonish, a runner provides provided light in one

such situation: "It looked like a great big star and was so
bright that it lit up the bridge that was one thousand feet
long." At that, most of the reports concerning the taibhs
have represented the spirit as a forerunner of death. Helen
Creighton was told that, "If a person is dying and thinking of
someone (to whom he is attached), he can make his presence
known (briefly, prior to death)."

Presumably, the taibhs first presented himself to his

host and then went travelling to inform the next of kin.
Since the gifted regularly saw their own runners, this was
not a matter for concern. Those who occasionally saw their
taibhs as a retreating form were pleased as this was an
omen of long life. "There (also) used to be a theory that if
you saw a forerunner early in the morning it (death) was
going to take a long time (occur at a remote time), but if
you saw it late in the evening it was going to happen very
soon." The main thing was that the taibhs should remain at
a decent distance; when it approached for a face-to-face
confrontation this was thought to spell immediate death.
Sometimes the taibhs materialized in groups.

This was the case at Southern Point, near Scatarie,

Nova Scotia: At a shore-camp, which was a temporary home
to a number of fisherman, the door suddenly opened at two
o'clock in the morning. "In walked eight or ten men in their
oilskins. And they sat around the fire. And after a while
(the solitary resident) kind of rubbed his eyes and there was
no one there." Two days later nine men fishing from the
"Ringhorn" were lost at sea and the ghostly figures were
taken to be forerunners of these men.

Very few individuals were naturally equipped to view

their own or other people's shades, and vague premonitions
of danger were not always understood by the uninitiated.
Perhaps recognizing this, the taibhs often intruded upon the
dreams of the common folk. On a March evening, George
Salter of Avondale, Nova Scotia, dreamed of drowned
lumbermen being washed ashore. The night before five such
men had left the Avondale wharf to raft timber down the
river, March 28, 1889. According to numerous witnesses
they were heard the men singing a tune entitled "Drifting,
drifting to our doom..." This was thought odd since it was
always considered an ill-omen to sing songs of loss and
destruction on the rivers or at sea. A woman of the district
later said that she heard cries of terror and panic from the
river at nine o'clock, but if so they were not heard by
others, perhaps because the death throes were masked by
chivaree celebrations going on simultaneously. At exactly
this time, Della Sweet, the wife of John, one of the men on
the raft heard her name called out, apparently in her
husband's voice. It was five days before bodies recovered,
and men agreed that they had witnessed the taibhs.

Again, not many men experienced dreams that were as

literal as that of George Salter. The taibhs was never
deliberately vague, but the connections between his world
and that of human kind seem to have been indistinct for
most men. A coffin, or a coffin-shaped object, seen in a
dream seemed to have a symbolism as direct as that of dead
bodies; and funeral parties, hearses, and the like, seemed
open to easy interpretation. Clergymen were seen as bad
luck at sea, and in dreams, as they were funeral orators.
Dreaming of fire, or of hell, was considered unlucky; but
there were more obscure symbols of death: A boat seen
landing might be considered innocuous, but people of earlier
times remembered that the death-god often travelled by
sea. Seeing teeth in a dream was considered a bad matter
and people did not like to view broken eggs. Interestingly
dreaming of an undertaker was thought to presage a long
life.

Where the taibhs was unable to gather the force

needed for a materialization or the creation of a "sensible"
dream it might still act as a harbinger in the form of an
elemental fire, sometimes termed the "dead-light" or
"corpse-candle." Summing up the views of numerous
interviewees, Helen Creighton described this phenomena as,
"a ball of light...with a tail. The corpse-candle might travel
in either direction between the home and grave-site of one
destined for death."

Mary L. Fraser noted that, "A light seen going very

quickly towards the graveyard was regarded as a sure sign
of death. A clear round light indicated the death of a man; a
light with little rays or sparks after it, that of a woman. If
you could see the house it started from, you would know
where the victim was." This form of taibhs was so feared
that a new boat built at Broad Cove, Nova Scotia, was
abandoned to the shore after corpse-candles seen on board.

When Cape Breton resident Malcolm Campbell was

asked about the present seeming scarcity of spirits of the
living, he said: "When people stop fishing, there's no fish
there. I heard this now in 1937. They used to fish off Port
Hood Island and Henry Island. And there was an awful lot of
fish, everybody was fishing. And the reason somebody told
me that there's no fish is nobody is fishing, there's no bait
on the grounds. So why were the fish going to congregate
there? It's the same with other things, like seeing things,
like forerunners."

TAIBHSEAR, a visionary. One who possessed the two sights,

a foreteller and hindteller. Taibsearhachd, the art of the
two-sights, bewildered conduct. It has been observed that
during the event gifted individualks stared without blinking
as long as the vision persisted. If a happening was observed
in the morning it was considered to forecast events in the
afternoon; if at noon, later in the day; if an nighht, before
dawn of the next day. A shroud seen in the vision predicted
a death in the clan or family, the imminence of the event
being related to how much of the body of the person seen
was enshrouded. If the shroud was about the feet there was
little immediate danger; if about the middle, death was
thought likely within twelve months; if it came as high as
the head death was considered certain within hours. A
spark observed falling upon a persons arm meant that that
individual would soon cradle a dying child. Individual seers
were not privy tro the same “waking dreams” but if one
touched another while in the trance state the vision was
relayed.

“By pretension to second sight, no profit was ever

sought or gained. It is an involuntary affection, in which
neither hope nor fear are known to have any part. Those who
profess to feel it do not boast of it as a privilge, nor are
considered bby others to be adventageously distinguished.
They have no temptation to feign and there hearers ahve no
motive to encourage an imposture.”

TAIGEIS, haggis, the human scotum, a big-bellied person,

from Scot. haggis, OFr. hachis, Eng. hash, allied with the
verb to hack.

TAILCENN, the Irish talcánta, strong. “Adze-headed,” The

name given St. Patrick by the druids of Ireland. They had
prophesied to King Laoghaire (428-463 AD) that “The
Taillcenn will come over furious sea, his mantle head-holed
(hooded) his staff crooked-headed. His dish shall be in the
east, and all his children will evermore answer - Amen,
amen!” The converted said of him: “Now Talcenn, the
Patrick, has come into the land and has preached to us the
One God and Christ His Son, by whose might the old days are
done with, Finn and his Fionn, their fasting and hunting
gone! Their songs of war and love have no reverence among
us whose prayers instead go up to cleanse of sins and save
us from the fires of judgement.”

TAILEASG, a ghost,, sport, a game, mirth.

TAILGEAN, obs. offspring of a god, Holy offspring, a Soldier

of God.

TAILGNEACHD, prophecy, see tairgneachd.

TAILLEASG, ghost, sport, mirth, game, board game. See

fidchell.

TAILSE, spectre, apparition.

TAILTU. The daughter of a Firbolg king she was married to
Eochaid mac Erc (sometimes equated with Manann mac Ler).
She was the foster-mother of the sun-god Lugh and gave her
name to present-day Telltown, Ireland.

TAIMH, death, mortality, silence, fainting, EIr. tam, plague;

confers with tamh, to rest. Skr. tamyati, choke.

TAIMH-LEAC, stones placeed where a person has died.

TAIMH-NEOIL, trance state, swoon, slumber, ecatacy.

TAIMHALICH, the odd soundsd emitted by house spirits just

before the dwelling is occupied by men.

TAIMTHIU, bed-death. Never the preferred ending for a life.

TÅIN, cattle, a drove, spoils (of a cattle raid). A plundering

expedition. The most famous of these was the Táin Bó
Cuailgne which led to war between Connacht and Ulster.

TÅIN Bó CUAILGNE, the “Cattle Raid of Cooley.” The most

famous epic in Gaelic mythology. The first reference to it in
written form is mentioned by Senchan Torpeist, the chief
poet of Ireland, who died in the year 647 A.D. Surviving
texts date much later than this, perhaps as late as the
eleventh or twelfth centuries, but essentially all describe
the troubles that a Connaught queen named Mebd had while
trying to capture the prized Brown Bull of Cuailgne, which
was kept in Ulster province. She led a host of warriors
against Ulster, whose warriors were rendered useless by “a
strange debility inflicted on them by the the Macha.” Only
the youthful champion Cú chullain was unaffected by this
“curse of child-bearing,”since he was in training in the
Land of Shadows at the time of pronouncement. He defended
the northern kingdom at the Ford of Ulster, until these men
were relieved and able to come to his aid.

TÅIN Bó FRAOCH, the “Cattle Raid of Fraoch,” which starts

with Fraoch’s attempts to woo Findbhair, the beautiful
daughter of Mebd and Ailill. In this tale, the hero
encountered and overcame a powerful sea-serpent.
Professor C.W. von Sydow (1923) suggested a
correspondence between this story and the Anglo-Saxon
Beowulf.

TAIRCHEADAL, a prophecy. Same as next.

TAIRGNEACHD, TAILGNEACHD, TAIRGIRE, a prophecy, Ir.

tairrgire, a promise to be kept in the future, OIr. tairngire, a
promise. Tairgreadh. obs. prophecying, a proverb.

TAIRM, necromancy. The art of raising the dead in seeking

prophetic answers to questions. See taghairm.

TAIRNEANACH, thunder. See torrunn for root. Activity

created by the actions of the god Tor. Tairneanaiche,
thunderer. Tairn-thoirm, thundering noise.

TAIS, cold, without spirit, moist, dank, damp, untempered,

not hardy, blunt, fearful, timid.

TAISBEAN, to reveal secrets. This word has the same origin

as tabhs, which, see. Related to taisgeal, locating things,
the finding of objects, taisgelach, a spy, betraying, from to-
sgeul, to tell stories, and thus taisgealadh, news.

TAISBEAN, TAISBEIN, TAISBAN, vision, apparition.

TAISBEANADH. Revelation, showing, disclosing, show,

pageant, The Wepipphany, Twelfth Day of Twelfth Night. A
dwemonstartion, celebration, apparition.

TAISDEALACH, pilgrim, lounger, passenger, traveller,

wanderer, hiker, person who passes quickly and is fleetingly
seen, vagabond, itinerant, contemptible, a ghost.

TAISEAL, ghost, any mysterious object of a fleeting,

flitting kind.
TAISG-AODACH, winding-sheet for the dead.

TAISLEACH, TAISLICH, ghostly sounds heard from the dark.

TALADH, enticing, hushing, carressing, that which offers

fascination, for example the solus an aigh, or “blesssed
light,” often seen above graves. This apparition had the
tendancy to act as a leading light, sometimes with dire
results. ON, tal, a device or entrapment, AS tal, calumny;
Lat. dolus, the Eng. doleful.

TALADH NA MNA SITHE, the “Lullaby of the Fairy-Women.”

According to folklore a fairy-woman appeared in the
nursery of the MacLeod heir. The nurse was awe-struck as
the woman took the baby in her arms, wrapped him in a
shimmering cloth and intoned: Behold this my child, limbed
like kid or fawn, smiting horses, grasping the harness of
shod horses, of spirited steeds, mo leasnabh bheag. Oh that I
might behold thy team, the men serving them, serving
women returning home, the catanach sowing the corn... Not
of Clan Mackenzie art thou, and not of Clan Conn: Bout of the
race more esteemed, Leod of the swords and armour, whose
father’s native land was Lochlann.” So impressed were
these words on the nurse she never forgot them. When the
fairy disappeared the servant hurried to the main-hall to
show the assembly the strange relic which had been left
behind on the child.

For years after, all children were sung the croon of

the fairy-woman as it was believed to be a seun which
would protect the infant chieftains from evil. As for the
“fairy-flag,” it was given to a custodian known as a duin-
bratach, or “standard-bearer,” who was given freehold
lands near Bracadalke for guarding this relic. Afterwards
the position became hereditary. There is a second version of
this tale, in which it is claimed that the memento was
obtained by the Chieftain in the Holy Land after he
successfully “wrestled” with “an elfin adversary.”
Afterwards this woman said that the Fair Flag might be
unfurled three times, but no more, to the magical benefit of
Clann MacLeod. It was said that misuse of the flag would
carry away the luck of the Clan. A third tales says that a
MacLeod chieftain had sex with a fay-woman, who presented
him with the favour as she returned to the Otherworld. The
leave-taking place is still known as Drochaid nan tri Alli,
the “Bridge of Brooks,” and is situated where the Portree,
Dunvegan and Vaternish roads converge.

TALLAGHT. A mound near Dublin formerly called the

Taimhleacht Muintor Partholain, the “Plague Mound of the
Patholonians.” It is said that 9,000 of Partholan’s people
died and were buried here.

TALAMH, earth; Lat. tellus, earth, flat, a board; Skr. talus,

level ground. In times past men swore by the earth. When a
Gaelic hero required retribution, his companions lifted bits
of the ground and shouted “Vengeance!” In the Outer
Hebrides there was, in every township a constabal baile,
who represented the crofter in all dealings with the laird.
His oath of office consisted of standing barefoot on the
earth as he made his promise to represent them. The earth
was formerly considered a living spirit the ultimate
mother-symbol. At birth, Highland mid-wives traditionally
gave new-born infants a small spoonful of earth as their
first food, and as we know, it is still customary to throw a
handful of earth on the breast of the dead. At the Quarter
Days the earth was always given a libation of the food and
drink, things seen to be derived from the soil.

TAL-FURADHARC, foresight, the ability to perceive coming

events.

TALTIU, TELTA, a daughter/wife of Manan mac Ler. In some

instances she is given as the foster-mother of the sun god
Lugh. She was sometimes said to have married Eochy mac
Erc, a king of the Firbolge. Taltiu's palace was at Tailtiu,
now entitled Telltown. There she died and was buried, and
her "son" is said to have created the great Lugnasad, or
Telltown Fair in her honour.
TAIGH-FAIRE, the wake house, taig, a custom; faire, lands
covered by the sea, "a hole". The Dead Lands, An Domhain.

TAIRGNEACHD, TAILGNEACHD, TAIRGIRE, prophecy, promise,

tairm, necromancy. The raising of omens through
consultation with the dead.

TAIRM, TAIRN, necromancy, superstition, enchantment,

either Christian or non-Christian magic. See also taghairm.
Specifically, the raising of the dead for purposes of
divination.

TALADH, enticing, hushing, caressing, ON. tal, an

enticement, bait or trap. “Nursey songs” employed by the
sidhe to hush abandoned children prior to making a
changeling exchange.

TAMH, rest, delay, sleep, dwelling, idleness, The Ocean,

Plague, EIr. tam, rest, repose, plage, death, rooted in sta, to
stand in one place, Eng. stand. Note taimh, death. Tamach,
slow, dull.

TAMHASG, also TANNAS, TANNASG. TANNHASG, a bodach, a

brownie, a human blockhead. See amhas for the first part of
this word. The ending is confluent with uruisg and tannasg.
These are creatures of the sithe, which is the phonetic
equivalent. A individual sith, indentured to a human
household. tamhasg, tannasg, possibly from the root-word
tann, long, thin, stretched out. A ghost of the departed as
opposed to the "taibh" or ghost of the living; an apparition,
wraith or spectre. Possibly confluent with the Brythonic
tann, the Breton tan, an oak tree, or the Cymric, tan, fire.
The Celtic ending asg is a preposition, indicating "out of".
The equivalent of the Anglo-Norman revanter. Contrast
with taibhs, immediately above. This invisible creature
usually made its presence known through poltergeistic
activity, but sometimes materialized in human form or that
of a totem animal. It was thought that the spirit of a dead
person usually combined with the spirit of his or her taibh,
moving afterwards to reincarnation. It is uncertain
whether the "tannas" represented this combination in earth-
bound form or was merely an unemployed taibh forced to
remain behind because of the trauma of a violent death.
Some of the tannas were known to have been deliberately
created to guard treasure, and these could only be unbound
through the removal of their horde.

In Gaelic communities it used to be thought that

ghosts had unfinished business, the fingering of a murderer,
the settling of a debt, or the righting of a wrong which
occurred while the spirit lived. Some returned to fulfil an
oath made while alive or to see that alms were given on
their behalf. This disembodied spirit was often suspected
of being malignant and it was sometimes thought wise to
propitiate it, or exorcize it, through magical rites. The
Celtic eve of the Samhain (Oct. 31) was a time for lighting
the "samhnagan" or ritual fire, whose purpose was to
scatter witches and other evil spirits. The souls of the
departed hovered then, taking what comfort they could find
before autumn to winter resigned the pale year. A ghost of
the departed as opposed to a "taibh" which was a ghost of a
living person. This being took his name from "tan" a Celtic
word sometimes taken to mean fire, but also describing the
oak tree and the colour imparted when people lie to long in
the sun. The ending "asg" is a preposition indicating a spirit
that "comes out of". The equivalent of the Anglo-Norman
"revandir", which we commonly call a "ghost".

This creature usually made its presence known

through poltergeistic activity but sometimes materialized
as the old totem animal of the dead person. Some tannas
were deliberately created to guard treasure and these could
only be allowed to pass on when the horde had been removed.
It used to be thought that ghost had unfinished earthly
business. Mary L. Fraser said, "It is a belief that the dead
cannot rest easily if they have left debts unpaid, or wrongs
done and not righted. Sometimes too, they have come back
in fulfilment of a promise, or to request almsgiving on their
behalf." Creighton thought that ghosts should be carefully
watched: "Whether a ghost is coming towards you or
walking away is thought to determine the length of life of
the person seeing the vision." The former indicated that
spirits of the hereafter would soon come looking for a soul
among the living; the speed of approach was thought related
to the period of life remaining.

This folklorist had thoughts about eliminating a

bothersome spirit: "As to the way to lay a ghost, the
method is the same as that used in (against) witchcraft. In
comparing the two, it looks as if witches are more easily
controlled than ghosts. Witches are always evil in their
intentions while ghosts may appear for a variety of
purposes..."

The most persistent tannas in Celtic history was the

"Rider" of Iona, Scotland, Ewan Maclain, of the Little Head.
He fought in battle against his own father, Iain the
Toothless, and persisted afterwards as "the Headless
Horsemen" whose ghost rides to presage the death of any
Maclaine of Lochbuie. His story is told in garbled fashion by
Creighton, and with better understanding by Fraser. What is
important here is the fact that this shade has been seen in
Maritime Canada as well as in Scotland. In the battle,
Ewans horse nearly threw a shoe and the haunt is invariably
heard by the clinking of this loose shoe before it is actually
seen. Old Macclaine of Inverness County, Cape Breton was
struggling against "bas" while a Macdougall watched his
wavering breath. Several times, the dying man was heard to
say, "I'm waiting...waiting..." All at once Macdougall heard
the rattling of a horse harness and looking from the
window saw "a military man with a small head" ride to the
front door on a grey horse. At this the attendant turned to
see how the old man was faring and found him dead on his
bed. Looking back through the window he saw a headless
man riding away but he dissolved before reaching the forest.

Mary L. Fraser has said: "It is a belief confirmed by

many examples that the dead cannot rest easily if they have
left debts unpaid, or wrongs done and not righted.
Sometimes too, they have come back in fulfilment of a
promise, or to request almsgiving on their behalf."

Creighton's work in Lunenburg County suggests that

necromancy was still a known art at the turn of this
century. At Madder's Cove, she encountered an individual
who insisted that "There was a man at Mader's Cove who
used to go to sea, and another fellow taught him how to
talk to the dead. He used to do it, but he said that it was a
great strain upon him." Strain, or not, there were benefits in
conversing with the dead. Aside from information
concerning past or future events which might be obtained
from these shades there was a promise of longevity.

A Hubbard’s resident put it this way: "If you see a

person who isn't there it means you'll be a long liver."
Opposing religions, supposing that the "other" had more
evils to undo invariably saw more ghosts in their
cemeteries. Thus at Wasabuckt, on the Bras D'Or Lakes of
Cape Breton, the Roman Catholics always said that"...the
Protestant cemetery swarmed with ghosts...The immediate
neighbourhood was not considered safe even in broad
daylight..." The reality of ghosts was also admitted in the
Protestant camp.

The Reverend Rev. Dean Cooper, a one-time cleric at

Fredericton, New Brunswick, admitted "Yes I was called to
perform the right of exorcism in Fredericton with the
authority of the Bishop and following the form prescribed in
the Church. The family concerned are very responsible
people...I became thoroughly convinced that...some kind of
"other world" activity was taking place in (their) house..."
Although Cooper followed prescribed form Helen Creighton
makes these suggestions concerning the tannas: "as to the
way to lay a ghost, the method is often the same as that
used in witchcraft. In comparing the two...it looks as
though witches are more easily controlled than
ghosts...Witches...are always evil in their intentions
whereas ghosts may appear for a variety of purposes..."

TANAISTE, next heir, tanist, heir apparent, second in status.

OIr. tanaise. The headship (whether chief or king) was
hereditary only to the extent that the leaders were chosen
from the righ-damna (king material). Beyond this, the
tuatha, mortuatha, or tribe was free to elect the man (or
woman) who seemed to incorporate the greatest degree of
god-spirit. In later centuries, to avoid quarrels between
royal relatives over succession, a king-elect, called the
tanaiste was chosen, whenever a king was declared. Like
the king, he had to be without physical deformity and when
elected agreed to govern according to law and ancient
custom. At the inauguration by an ollam, he agreed in public
to abide by tradition, one foot being placed on the "home-
stone" as he swore to the conditions of his oath. Kings
made the same testament with both feet on a sacred-stone.
Non-observance of the swearing-in promises constituted
grounds for deposition. When the power of a king was seen
to flag, it was the duty of this individual to see that aging,
or ailing king was “brought down.” In the earliest times the
god-king sometimes agreed to ritual suicide, but where he
could not be persuaded, he might be eliminated by one of his
successor in the heat of battle or a cattle raid.

TANNAS, TANNASG, apparition, ghost, from tana, thin,

elongated, stretched out. Note that the Daoine sidh, or
"little" people were never described as "small," the opposite
of "big," but as men and women who were tall and so thin as
to be and almost “invisible.” Related to the A.S. tangey or
tyangie. Dialectic English of Scandinavian origin. Confers
with the Danish tang, the Old Norse pang and the English
word tangle. All refer to seaweeds of the genii
Ascophyllum and Fucus, the species called Fucus vesiculosis
being known as black tang. Tangy, or tangie, refers to
either the sharp, tart pinching taste of these seaweeds or
the spirit that resided in them on the island of Orkney. Like
the kelpie, who lived in the kelp beds, this creature could
take the form of any marine plant or animal, an ability
gifted on it by the sea-giants. These sea-horses were
commonly referred to as the eich uisge in the Gaelic tongue.
They often came ashore as young horses or ordinary men and
women. In a playful mood, they often invited humans to
mount them and carried them on a ferocious ride that ended
with a ducking in some nearby fresh-water stream. They
had kin among certain clans and these they warned from the
possibility of drowning by setting up corpse-light over the
water or moaning after the fashion of a banshee. Those
without this useful connection were warned against
mounting this kind when they were at the seaside for they
were capable of rape and murder, the male tangie especially
so since he had an oversized sexual apparatus. The sea-
horses seemed maddened in sight of the deep sea and
invariably carried their victim to a drowning afterwards
consuming every part of his body excepting the liver. In
some respects this creature corresponds with the neas,
which sometimes shape-changed into a horse.

TAPAD, good luck, a clever feat.

TAR. TARR, TER, TEARR, THAR, TOR, TORR, TUR, TUIR, evoke,
ON. Thor, Thunar, Thuner, Thunor or Donar, the Old Norse god
of thunder. Particularly seen in those parts of the old
Gaelic realms where the Norse were in occupation. Confers
with the continental Tyrr, a Germanic-Scandinavian god of
war and agriculture and with the Gaulish Taranis. Probably
related to the Gaelic tarachair, an augur taraid, a truncheon
or staff of authority, taran, the ghost of an unconsecrated
infant, tarabh, a bull, tarcuis, contempt, targadh, ruling
body, governing assembly, targair, to foretell, tarlaid, a
slave, tormach, to grow ripe or increase, tarnach, a
thunderclap, tarsuinn, to traverse, to come across a
distance, tartar, noise, tir, land, dry-land, torc, a boar,
torchar, a fall usually resulting in death, torr, a conic hill, a
tower, torrach, pregnant from tor, belly; a belly-full.
torradh, a burial ceremony or wake, torrunn, thunder, any
great noise, tuireann, a spark of fire, tur, a crowd, turguin,
destruction, turlach, a massive fire, also a squat person, a
round lump, turloch, a lake that dries in summer, turrag, a
surprise, turradh, an accident, turram, a distant
mummering, turus, a journey. AS. thunor, similar to their
thunian, to stretch, D. donder, G. donner, OHG. donder ON.
thôrr, all meaning thunder and Thor. Skr. tan, to sound, stan,
to thunder, Eng. astonish, detonate, stun, Thursday, tornado,
terra, the Gaelic tir. Also the source of many northern
family names: eg. Torry, Torey, Tori, Torquill,Torcail,
Torcull, Thorkell, Maccoruodale. F. Marian McNeill says that
the northern Scottish town of Harwick has as its “ancient
slogan:” Teribus ye Teri-Odin “which is held to indicate (as
does the word burgh) the Scandinavian origin of the
community. Teri-Odin is believed to invoke two Norse
deities -one either Thor the god of thunder, or Tir (also
called Ti) the war god, the other Odin or Woden, the father
of the gods.

Actually, the pagans were no less facile than the

Christians at uniting disparate gods, and Odin is known to
have displaced the older Thor-Tyrr. The Harwick slogan
seems to translate quite directly as “The land of Thor-
Odin,” but Sir James Murray thinks it is a contraction of an
earlier expression: Tyr haebbe us ge Tyr ge Odin, which is
“Thor be with us, Thor and Odin (be with us).” Thor is the
Germanic Donar , the son of Jörd, or Erda and Odin .
Remarkable for his childhood rages he was fostered out to
parents whose names are a personification of sheet-
lightning. As one of these parents was Vingnir, the
“Winged,” Thor is often referred to as Vingi-Thor. At the
age of reason he was admitted to the Asgardr , the ruling
faction of the gods. He built the distant realm known as
Thrudheim where his palace, known as Bilskirnir
(Lightning), was erected. It is noteworthy that this place
was “the most spacious in all Asgardr, the “Home of the
gods.” All thralls, or common folk, went there after death,
and got as good treatment as their masters received in
Odin’s Valhalla.

Thor was the patron god of peasants and the lower

classes. Note that he was always honoured as the first god
of pagan Norway and elsewhere was referred to as “Old
Thor, ” because it was said that “he belonged to an older
dynasty of gods.” After he was displaced, Asa and his aides
would not allow him to pass over the bridge Bifröst
ostensibly “lest he set it aflame by the heat of his
presence.” This may be taken as representing a general fear
that the lower classes might arise against their rulers.
Thor’s weapons included a magic “hammer”, the “Crusher”
which he threw at enemies. Like the cnap-starradh of the
historic Gaelic warrior, it had the property of “always
returning to his hand, however far he might hurl it..” This
device, the emblem of thunderbolts, was always red-hot
and to catch it on return he wore an iron-gauntlet known as
the “Iron-gripper.”

When he wore the magical belt known as the Megin-

giörd his already remarkable strength was doubled. Thor
has been described as somewhat Celtic in appearance: “a
man in his prime, tall and well formed, with muscular limbs
and bristling red hair and beard, from which, in moments of
anger, the sparks flew in showers. The first century Roman
writer named Lucan said that Taranis, the Celtic god of
thunder for Gaul (France) was one of three ruling gods, just
as Thor was one of three similarly allied gods. This
interchangeable trio also included Æsus, the Gaelic Uis,
Ugh, or Lugh and the Cymic Hu. The third member of the
group was Teutates who is the northern god Tues or Tyrr
whose name is commemorated in Tues-dag. Therefore, see
Aod, the day-god, who is the chief Gaelic side-form of Lugh.
See entries immediately below. See Lugh, Uisdean, Aes, As-
duinn.

TARACANDACHD, obscurantism, secretiveness, the

principles of the black arts. Note the relationship with the
previous word.

TARACHAIR, augur, SIr for tarathar. See tora, from Thor, the
Teutonic god of lightning. See thoir and related words.
Particularly, prognostication through observation of
weather.

TARAID, the truncheon or staff of authority, a billy club.

Various woods were thought empowered by magic according
to their incarnate spirits.
TARAN, the ghost of an unchristened, or an otherwise
unprotected infant. From toranach, a grub-worm, borer,
corn-maggot; relating directly to Taranis, the Gaulish god
of thunder who is the Old Norse Thor. See tabhs, a ghost.
Notice that the svartalfar (dark elfs) of Scandinavia were
said derived from the body of "the giant" killed by Odin.
Since Odin displaced Thor as the chief god in northwestern
Europe, this prime "rime-frost" creature may be thought of
as the "dead" god personified. It is said that Odin "called
forth" all of the elfs from the decaying flesh and gave them
human form, but they were never gifted with nornir
(bafinne), the guardian spirits of men. The taran were said
to wander the waste-lands as "will o' the wisps" or
"corpse-candles," disembodied spirits of the dead. The
befinne were said to be tenuously attached to their humans
in the first year after birth. Unable to provide much
protection they sometimes went back to their source at the
death of a child. Where this happened, the child was thought
unable to reincarnate (or rejoin God or the gods) and the
detached soul was forced to hover "at the borders of
elfland, appearing as lightning before a storm. Many humans
find these lights hypnotizing and will follow them wherever
they lead, into bogs and marshes, and over cliffs." These
are the "spunkies" of lowland Scotland and northern England,
those that wander the world's oceans are entitled the thoir-
clann.

TARBH, the bull, Cy. tarw, Cor, tarow, Bry. taro, Gaul.
tarvos, Lat. tauris, perhaps from the root tu, in which case
steer is related. AS. styric, a young bull or heifer, an animal
prior to sexual maturity, from which the Eng. sterile.
Usually an animal in its second year, a stirk, also, a coarse,
bumbling stupid person. The Gaelic tearc, scarce, rare from
the root ters, dry. See tir, “dry land.” The totem animal of
the moon-god Nuada, and his “twin-brother,” the sun-god
Lugh. In the Book of the Dun Cow it is said that the Irish
kings were once selected as follows: "A white bull was
killed and the Samhain-priest ate his fill of the flesh and
drank its blood. A spell was chanted over him as he lay
bloated in the trance-state. In the “dream sphere” he could
see the shape and appearance of the next man who would be
king." (Celtic Monthly. p. 14).

In 1678 a party gathered at Eilean Mourie (Mourie

Island) in Loch Ewe, "for the purpose of sacrificing (a bull)
in ane heathenish manner for recovering the health of
Cirstane Mackenzie." She recovered. for she is
subsequently described as, “formerly sick and
valetudinaire.” The island of Mo-Urie or Mourie on which
exercises of this sort took place was supposedly founded by
Maol Rubha (640-722), an Irish monk, whose fame was only
second to that of Columba. Midway through his career this
Christian missionary built the monastery of Apurvhrosan
(now called Applecross) on a sheltered part of the Rosshire
coast overlooking the islands of Skye and Raasay. Here he
died, and his grave is still sought out for magical purposes.
The person who takes earth from above Maol Rubha is
supposedly assured of safe travels. “The common oath of
that country is by his name,” and he is remembered in
various Scottish place-names. The sacrifice of the bull and
the circumambulation of chapel’s associated with this
saint’s memory by moonlight have led McNeill to the
conclusions that this saint is ”merged with the earlier
moon-worship,” and Maol-rubha is himself a survival of an
ancient moon-deity.

“Drawings of salmon and serpents appear on many of

our sculptured stones (Scotland), and the bull is no less
prominent. At Burghead, in Moray, six stones have been
found in different spots, each with an incised outline of a
bull, highly conventionalized, and ornamented with spiral
curves. The designs vary slightly but all the drawings are
strong and spirited. Similar stones have been discovered
near Inverness, and in 1920 another was unearthed in the
parish of Falkland, in Fife.’ (The Silver Bough, Vol. 1, p. 76).

In 1695 the Presbytery of Dingwall reported that the

people of Applecross "among their abominable and heathen
practises were accustomed to sacrifice bulls at Certaine
time upon the 25th of August, which day they dedicate to S.
Maurie, as they call him." Anciently, the bull was said to be
attached to solar-deities and bull figures are seen carved
on Pictish stones. At least seven representations were
recovered from Morayshire, Scotland, suggesting that
Burghead may be the site of Tarved (un)um, the “Bull Fort”
mentioned in mythology. There is evidence for veneration of
this beast in pre-Celtic Britain, when it may have been
worshipped in the context of a solar cult. In this case it is
often pictured along with swans, horses and stags. See Mo-
Ùr.

TARBH BOIDRE, AOIDHRE, The “High Day Bull,” having

reference to the god Aod. The latter spelling appears in
northern Scotland. A monster, a demon, a god capable of
shape-shifting.

TARBH CHOINNLE, the “Candlemas Bull,” an element of

divination at Hogmanay or Samhuinn. Watchers before dawn
looked for the first bull of winter in the western sky. If it
hung there, dark and forbidding, it gave the same omen as a
cloudless sky, a year of death and want. Turning away from
the dead lands, the diviner hoped that the “bull” would be in
the north. If it was seen here as a large definite black mass
with a soft outline, then it was expected that a year of
plenty was forecast. If the cloud appeared frost- filled or
hard-edged this was taken as bad news. A prominent cloud
in the south indicated that the crop of straw would be
adequate but the grains would be of poor quality. The
eastern sky harboured the bull when a fair crop year was on
the line. Many other things were determined from sky
position, direction of travel of the cloud and its time of
disappearance.

TARBH, DUBH, the black-bull, the totem animal of Clan

MacLeod. "A black bull is a very ancient symbol of royalty,
and the presentation of a black bull's head symbolized the
death of an enemy chief. A black bull's head was set before
the young Douglas chief at the royal table in Edinburgh
Castle before his summary execution in 1440. A decade or
so earlier, the Macintosh guests massacred the feasting
Cummins at the entry of a black bull's head...Thus the
MacLeod crest is a very ancient royal emblem as befits
scions of the old pagan Norse sea-kings, and may well
represent their victory over a rival royal line." (The
Highland Clans, p. 66). Note that white bulls were
identified with the sun god named Lugh who was sometimes
termed Aod, the Day. These bulls were ritually killed at the
time of Samhuinn. The white bull was the bull of Lugh or
the summer sun; the black bull that of the Cailleach or
Winter Hag.

TARBH EITGH, fierce bull, eitgh, fierce, dismal,

abomination, not housebroken. Trabh eithre in Skye. See
neighbouring entries. This animal is distinguished from the
ordinary variety by his short ears. The water-bull is
frequently represented as friendly to highlanders.

TARBH UISGE, tarbh (pronounced tar-ev), a bull; uisge,

water. A water-bull similar to the Anglo-Teutonic
bullerman. These confer with bull-beggar, bugleboo,
bugaboo, bugbear and the Gaelic bogle (which, see). The
MacLeods had this animal as their totem, which may explain
their name, derived from the Old Norse "liot", "an ugly one".
The black bull was a very ancient symbol of Scottish
royalty and a beheaded bull was presented, as an explicit
omen, on the table of a king whose powers were failing. The
Scots were in the habit of transferring all the sins,
diseases and guilt of their community to a king destined for
death, thereby taking it to earth with his cremated corpse.

A black bull's head was set before a young Douglas

chief just before his summary execution at Edinburgh in
1440, and the Mackintosh used the entry of this dish as a
signal to cut down their Cummins' guests. At a much earlier
date, the druids are said to have sacrificed bulls to
unspecified sea-gods, a procedure that continued in the
west highlands of Scotland until well into the last century.
Mannhardt supposed that human and animal sacrifices
released god-spirits from their humanoid form, their
periodic return to the earth being necessary to invigorate it
for crop growth and the health of animals that depended
upon vegetation for food. This seems supported by the fact
that bull was named as one of the kern, or corn, spirits.
When the grain crop was luxurious in a part of the field men
would say "the bull lies in the corn."

Diabolical possession and exorcism remain a part of

some Christian traditions. In County Fermanagh, Ireland a
Catholic priest made a notable effort to help to troubled
young girls but they were not freed of evil spirits until the
family "retreated to America". One Irish immigrant to Cape
Breton learned that not all of the "ghaists and gobbles" were
halted thy the power of "the vast stream" (the Atlantic).
After Old Man Riley was a few months in the New World her
approached his village priest at Saint Peters. He told
Father Henry McKeagney, that he was in "some trouble",
having sold his soul to the Devil while still resident in
Ireland. Old Scratch had just appeared to him, he claimed,
saying that the contract still had to be honoured. He
implored the priest to help, and being a decent man, the
father put on his vestments, and "accompanied by a
Frenchman carrying a blessed candle" marched out to
Riley's place where he was met by "a great squall of wind."
His Satanic Highness came down off the steep hill behind
the house "in guise of a big black bull." The priest was a
little surprised but held his ground, and after calling up the
usual Christian god spells, demanded that Riley's soul be
surrendered to God. At this the bull became "a great long-
eared black dog", that argued the case with the priest. The
priest won more points for the dog "took off over the bay".

The black bull was a very ancient symbol of Scottish

royalty and a beheaded bull was presented, as an explicit
omen, on the table of a king whose powers were failing. The
Scots were in the habit of transferring all the sins,
diseases and guilt of their community to a king destined for
death, thereby taking it to earth with his cremated corpse.
A black bull's head was set before a young Douglas chief
just before his summary execution at Edinburgh in 1440,
and the Mackintosh used the entry of this dish as a signal to
cut down their Cummins' guests. At a much earlier date, the
druids are said to have sacrificed bulls to unspecified sea-
gods, a procedure that continued in the west highlands of
Scotland until well into the last century.

TARCHADAIR, TARACHAIR, necromancer, seer, auger. One

who raises the dead to gain their foretelling powers.
Taircadaireachd, the art of nrecromancy. Tar, to evoke.
After Thor. See next.

TARGAIR. to foretell. See tairgneachd, taragaich, a presage

or bodemont, targhail, to forebode, targradh, foretelling,
prophecy, divination, predicting.

TARLAID, “Thor’s weak ones,” a slave, a thrall, the Eng.

varlet.

TARAN, the spirit of an unbaptized child, taranch, spectral.

TARMACHADH, dwelling, producing, originating, the source,

Ir. tormach, increasing, ripe with things, magnifying, OIr.
tormach, increase, from Tor + mag, power, the latter part of
the word having reference to the May queen.

TARRAGH, ingathering of crops at the harvest season.

Harvest Home. Frequent movements to-and-fro.

TARRUINGEADAIR, an artist and a magician; tarruingeach, an

allurement, that which attracts or draws.

TARSGAL. Monetary reward offered for the recovery of

stolen catt6le. In the past chieftains forced their vassals to
his their dirk promising not to accept such remuneration
upon pain of death.

TARTAN. obs. hillock, clod. Surprisingly, the word arises

from the Spanish tiritana, a cloth anciently woven from
silk. From the Celtiberian world the word may have passed
in use to Gaul, thus the French tiretaine, which is the
coarser linsey-woolsey, a material made of a combination
of linen and wool. The word may have had original reference
to the twisted nature of the thread, thus the French tourte,
twisted, and perhaps the Gaelic torc, clefted or notched (a
neck-piece). The word may also relate to the ancient lost
kingdom of Tartessos, which was destroyed in some
unknown calamity in the fifth century B.C.

Their guardian god may confer with the continental

Celtic thunder-god Taranis, who is equated with the Gaelic
god Hu and the Norse Thor. Note the Gaelic Tartar, a side-
form of his name. This word also identifies any loud noise.
Tartan, the cloth of the old gods, was once widely used
across Europe but is now thought of as a woolen material
much worn in the Scottish highlands, where every clan is
perceived as having an individual pattern consisting of
checks or cross-bands of various colours. Actually clan
tartans are a fairly modern invention created in the
interests of trade and commerce. Tartaned wearing apparel
was not a feature of British society until the time of
Tighernmas ard righ , the seventh king in the Milesian line,
which brought the weave from Spain. “To him, or his
successor Eochaid, is credited the ancient ordinance which
distinguished the various classes and professions by the
colours of their dress: A king or queen might wear seven
colours; a poet six, a chieftain five, an army leader four, a
land owner three, a rent-payer two, a serf one colour only.”
See cadadh, tartan cloth.

TARTAR, noise; the replicated word tar or tor as seen in

tòirneanach, from the “Gaulish” god Taranis, said to confer
with the Gaelic Uisdean, the Roman Jove and the old Norse
Thor. May confer with Lat. Tartarus, the underworld and
with Tartessos, a Celtiberian kingdom anciently located in
south-western Spain. In Gaelic this place was Tarsus, see
note immediately below. This was the Biblical Tarhish,
Jonah’s destination and perhaps a synonym for the
Phoenician city of Tyre, for Isaiah, sermonizing about its
destruction, advised, “Howl ye ships of Tarhish, for it is
now laid waste.” Tartessos was in the general vicinity of
modern Cadiz, and its people were called the Turdetani or
Turduli. Their trade ships were referred to by their
neighbours as tarhish and this seems to survive in the
Italio-French-Spanish tartana, a Mediterranean coasting
vessel having one mast carrying a large lanteen sail, a
bowsprit and staysail or jib. This last word may also confer
with the Spanish tirtane, for which see tartan.

TARSUS, the Biblical Tarhish as represented in Gaelic. See

above entries. EIr. tarsnu, to traverse across (water), from
tar, across. A pre-historic trading destination for the Gaels
of Britain, believed to be Tartessos in Spain. There is
reference in mythology to Longan Tharsuis, the “longships
of Tarhish.” This name was eventually transferred to all
ships having first-rate fittings whatever their port of
origin. Thairis, over, across; thar, across, over, beyond, Lat.
trans, terminus, Skr. tar, to pass through, bore, G. tarachair,
an omen, torrach, fruitful (place), Taranis, the god of
thunder conferring with the Gaulish Iove better known as
Jove or Thor. Note the traditional tale which insists that
the craftsman named Creidné, the chief smith to the Daoine
sidh was drowned while “transporting gold ore from Spain.”

TASG, TAISG, to store away. A spirit bird, a harbinger of

death. Appears in different forms depending on the
persoanlity of the person at risk. An aged fisherman might
see his forerunner as agray gull while a young lassie would
observe a pure white diove. Shooting an ill-omened bird
created one’s tasg on the spot.

TASGAIDH, taisg. a storage place, to deposit; a treasury. To-

ad-sec, having the idea of “Put there in the remote past.”
Roughly, the female name Tasha. Another name for the
Mhorrigan, who was the sovereign queen of the Gaels.

TASGAL, money offered for the recovery of cattle lifted by

freebooters.

TASLACH, premonition, the ghost of living human.

TASPAIR, a satirist, tasp. serious sarcasm intended to do

magical harm, taspullach, witty, sarcastic, petulent,
taspurladh. invective.

TATHA, the Eng. Tay, earlier G. Toe, “primarily the name of a

goddess.” “the Silent One.” tathaich, having a frequent
tendancy to vomit. Cy. Taw, silent, silence. A name given
to several British rivers; tath, obs. lord, ruler, anger,
slaughter, bail, security. See next.

TATHACH, guest, visitor, stranger. May confer with

tuathanach.

TATHAICH. supernatural knowledge of the doings of folk who

are absent, ghost, apparition, tendancy to vomit, a craving.

TATHASG, a shade, a spirit, a demon. Particularly that of an

orphaned child, supposedly protected by the shade of his or
her mother. Scondary meaning: a demon.

TATH-BHEUM, a mortal blow, the effect of a well-cast stone

or dart from the crann-tabhuil. The Mhorrigan wassd
dispatched using this weapon.

TE, woman, female, insipid, slightly fermented, thick. See

Te-mor.

TEADH-BHAIS, “drawn out and dead,” a phantom, a ghost.

TEAGASG- DRUIDHEACHD. druidic teachings, sorcery,

druidism.

TEALL. TEALLAN, philosopher, teine, fire. See various

entries under teine.

TEALLSANACH, skeptic, philosopher, sage, learned man,

astronomer.

TEA-MOR, gen. TARA, sometimes TEAMHAIR, (T’yower,

Tavvir), Confers with tè or tèa, insipid, slightly fermented,
from the root teas, which confers with Eng. tepid. The
wife of the Milesian king named Eremon, the first high-king
of all Ireland. He took possession of the Firbolge capitol on
three hills overlooking the River Boyne and they became
Tara, a corruption of the genitive case of this compound
word. Teas, heat from teine, fire + mor, great, wide in
expanse, the ocean-sea. Sometimes identified as a goddess
of the Tuatha daoine who married one of the human kind.

This fiery lady quarrelled with the wife of Eremon's

brother, Eber, over possession of Tara. The war that
followed ended in Eber's death and Tea-mor took possession
of her heart's desire, which became the dun of the ard-righ.
The greatest structure there was the Mi-Cuarta, or
banqueting hall, which was larger than The House of a
Thousand Soldiers. Each prince of the realm had a place on
one of these hills, where he was in temporary residence at
Samhain and Beltane. There too was erected the Grianan, or
Sun-house, made especially for the provincial queens and
their attendants. The Stronghold of Hostages was another
necessary building as was the Star of the Bards, built for
the poets, historians, judges and doctors of the land when
they were called to assembly. During the early years of
Christianity King Diarmuid became the last high-king to sit
at Tara.

In one of numerous quarrels with his provincial

chieftains, the king commanded that all the duns should
widen their doorways so that the king's spear carried
horizontally might pass. Diarmuid sent a sergeant-at-arms
throughout the countryside to see if this edict had been
obeyed. In the process of carrying out the king's command,
this overzealous bureaucrat intruded upon the wedding
ceremony of King Aed of Connaught. In an understandable
rage, Aed struck off the head of the intruder, and realizing
the identity of the man fled to the monastery of Saint
Ruadan of Lorra. Diarmuid was, in turn, angered by the
presumption of the churchmen in shielding Aed and violated
sanctuary to take him prisoner.

Following traditional procedures Saint Ruadan led a

group of Christians to Tara and began a "black-fast" against
the high-king. The high-king started a starvation regime of
his own, but being in the wrong, was the first to break fast.
Seeing that he could not overcome the tinkling bells and
incessant prayers of the monks, Diarmuid made to join
them, reasoning with them following the daily prayer
meeting. At length, aware that the clerics would not yield
to him, Diarmuid cursed Saint Ruardan. At this the
churchman retaliated, cursing the high-king’s person and
his dynasty, and promising that Tara would cease to exist
as the residence of kings. In the year 563, Diarmuid was
killed and the wild birds came to roost in the halls of Tara,
the beasts of the field being the only residents of the place
for many years. This place was also known as Drumcain,
which, see.

TE, TEA, a woman, a female, insipid, slightly fermented,

tepid, after the mortal-goddess, the consort of the Milesian
high-king Eremon. This monarch named his capital Tea-
mhair, later Tara after her. Tebaid, a taunt, a repartee,
teibidh, having a “cutting” tongue, the root be, to cut. But
note also teamhaidh, pleasant, the Eir. temair, delightful.
Also teas, heat, root tep, burn, Skr. tap, to be hot. Also from
this root teine, fire and teasach, fever.

TEACH, TECH, a house, OIr. tech, teg, having the sense of

“roofed over.” Thatched. Cf. with Lat. tego, to cover, the
Germ. dach, the Skr. sthagati, cover. Tigh is the nominative
case. See tuath for more.

TEALL, metaphysics, philosophy, from teine, fire; lach,

reckoning, the Scot. lauch, tavern talk.

TEALLAID, a bountiful and/or lusty woman, tea

TEARLACH, Thor the Flyer, less literally Charles. MIr.

Toirrdhealbhach, anglicized as Tirlagh or Tourlough, Lat.
Turrisformis, “built like a tower.” In Gaelic the related
tear or tair, has the sense of superhuman. Hence M’Kerlie.
TEARMANN, a sanctuary, protection, possibly from Lat.
termo, the Eng. terminus, the end of a race for life when one
reaches church lands, i.e. the Termon landes. From this
tearuinn, save, escape, the root rn, possibly the Eng. run.

TEASD, die, fail, literally “I am not.”

TECH DUIN, the House of Don, a gathering place for the dead,
sometimes said to lie southwest of Ireland. A place
presided over by Don, the god of the dead.

TECH SCREPTA. The great Gaelic libraries dating from the

sixth century B.C. Ireland was the seat of learning during
the so-called Dark Ages, vast libraries being presided over
by leabhar-coimdaech. Most of these were destroyed when
the Old Norse went viking.

TEGHAIN, The places where the Daoine sidh lived were

teghain, lterally “thatched homes.” With a little twisting
and turning through Gaelic the word teg can be shown to
relate to tuath, the intermediate form being tugha. which
indicates a simple roof-covering, especially a “thatch.”
The latter Ennglish form is essentiallty the same word and
they resemble the Latin tego, a “cover.” The root Gaelic is
thought to be tog , “to raise up,” or possibly steg, which is
also written stig. This word is the verb “skulking” and is
not unlike the Old Norse stygr, “shy,” and their word stic,
“ghastly.” This word appears in the Gaelic glastig, the
“grey skulker,” a vampire-like sidh.

TEIDH, wild, fierce, wild fire, see Te and teine.

TEIDHM, Death, a curtain, a covering. Formerly, pestilence.

Related to teididh, wild-fire.

TEIL, a name for the first of six planets which the druids
claimed revolved about the sun. The others were: Riomhag,
Saoghal, Corg, Bliugh, Rolag.

TEIRIG, to fail, be spent, die, EIr. tarnic, “It is ended.”

TELLTIN, stringed, a harp

TEOAS, the trade of the potter. One of the lesser magical

arts.

TEIDEACH. One of the two sons of the Dark Lord known as

Cromm the Crooked. He is sometimes represented as a god
although he is also given as a pagan chieftain opposed by
Saint Patrick. His brother was Clonach.

TEIN-AOIBHNEIS, a bonfire, a welcoming fire. A home- or

hearth-fire. Aoibh, pleasant, comely, cheerful, after the god
Aod. The fire devoted to the sun-god Lugh, a small
personification of his being. The Old Norse, Loki, seen in
English medieval literature as the lob- or hob-lie-by-fire.
The hobgolbin. The former sanctity of this fire is seen in
the fact that strangers were not invited to poke up the
flame since this offered insult to the god of the hearth. In
Gaelic parts it is a common belief that a hearth-fire cannot
be lit if the fuel lies within a beam of sunlight. Presumably
the god of that larger orb resents the presumption?

TEIN-ATHAIR, the Allfather’s fire, fire from heaven,

lightning. thunderbolt, fire-ball, luminous falling object.
TEINE, OIr. tene, Cym. tan, Bry. tan, the Celtic root te from
tep, hot. as in teas. The Celtic root is in the goddess Te, see
above notation. “The curious fear of ill-luck with the giving
or stealing of fire assuredly derives from the druidic fire-
festivals.” On the eve of the Half Days all fire in the
community was “put down” and ritually rekindled to re-
sanctify the hearth. Saining with fire was once a common
practise accomplished by carrying a “live” peat thrice round
the domicile. The Samhain fires were kindled at dusk and
those of the Beltane, at dawn. From the making of new fire
flowed the tradition of throwing ashes and smouldering
peat into the air, “always repeating a certain formula of
words to bring luck. But the strictest secrecy is observed,
lest the practise should reach the ears of the (Christian)
minister.” There is a saying: “On the Quarter-Day, give
nothing away!” and this was especially true of new fire (in
the shape of a smouldering flame or kindling). In Rosshire it
was said that even the youngest children were “well versed
in fire lore.” The local baobhe often came begging wood, but
had to be refused at least three times or they might walk
away “with the luck of the house.” One young girl explained:
“’gin the cailleach had gotten the kindling, my father would
get no herring this year!” To prevent newborn children from
being taken by the sidhe a burning peat was taken in the
right hand and the mother and child encircled seven times
clockwise by the magician. This cermony was performed at
sunrise and sunset until a child was baptized and the
mother churched. Frequently a “fire cord” of scarlet thread
was tied about the child’s wrist and a Bible placed beside
it, with another volume placed beneath the mother’s pillow.

TEINE-A-BHAIS, flame of Death. The cold light emitted from

the residence of a person presaged for death.

TEINE-DE, God’s-fire, Saint Anthony’s Fire, perceived

amidst the rigging on ships at sea. Considered a good omen,
herpes, tetter, ring-worm (a visitation from the gods?)

TEINE-DREALLACH, uncontrollable wild-fire. The light given

off by decaying wood or that emitted by marine organisms.

TEINE-EIGINN, fire of necessity, a "teine-iotoiche" kindled

to meet a special crisis (famine, flood, destruction by
storm, or other willful maleficence of the gods or nature-
spirits. Besides the Quarter-Days, the Gaels turned to the
ritual of fire in seasons of calamity. Throughout Europe
such lightings were termed "need fires,” although they were
sometimes entitled "wild-fires" to indicate the drastic
character of the ritual. The Slavonic peoples frequently
referred to these very special fires as "the living fires." The
usual occasion for the teine-eiginn was an outbreak of
plague among cattle, the complete blighting of a crop, or a
virulent attack of disease among men. As a preliminary to
the kindling of this fire, all the regular hearth fires were
dampened, it being believed that any remnant spark would
destroy the magic of the procedure. It was not unusual for
the prohibition against "old fire" to extend across a parish
between two streams or rivers of running water, these
being considered the natural boundaries of magical practise.
 The need fire was always "made" in the open air, the
site of fire-creation being a cross-road, or a hollow on a
highway. In wilder places the site was invariably an island
or the highest hill in the region. The fire was always
generated by friction, sometimes using a mechanical device
known as the axle-wheel. Various local rules governed the
number and makeup of the teams that created the "new fire"
the main prohibitions being against men who were thieves,
boundary-stone movers or murderers.

Once alight, sick animals were driven through the

smoke, through the ashes, or between two fires, the pigs
first, cows next and horses last. After that family
members blackened the beasts, and one another, with
charcoal sticks from the spent fire. Finally this parade of
people and animals passed through the streets of the
nearest village, and it is recorded that the folk did not wash
away the blackening "for a very long time." Extinguished
brands were laid in the cattle barns and put in mangers
where the cattle fed. Ashes from the need-fire were
strewn on the fields to "chase away vermin."

Sometimes the ashes were sprinkled on the ailing

parts of men and animals, or mixed with water to be taken
as an internal tonic. The fires in domestic hearths were
rekindled from the need-fire, the first pot of water boiled
over it being used as a disinfectant. "In the Highlands of
Scotland the need-fire was counted a sovereign remedy
against witchcraft." (The Golden Bough, pp. 741-742). Last
kindled in Reay, 1830: North Uist, 1829; Arran, 1820 and
Helmsdale, 1818. See acastair.

TEINE-FIONN, TEINE-SIONNACHAIN, a will o' the wisp;

foxfire. any phosphorescent light of supernatural or natural
origin. tiene, fire, the same word as the English tan. Fionn,
white; sionnachain, fox. See teine-side. This is the hauga
elldr, or tomb-fire, observed by the Old Norse.

"The northern nations always believed that the tombs

of their heroes emitted a kind of lambent light, which was
always visible at night, and served to guard the ashes of the
dead. It was supposed more particularly to surround such
tombs as contained hidden treasure.” One North American
Indian magician has explained that spirited objects, "hold a
light" which may be felt on the palm of the hand in the
daylight. "This is the same light animals leave behind on
the stones along the river where they have passed the
night."

In Canadian legends of the white men and the Indians,

natural night-lights were associated with the spirits of the
dead. The Scandinavians referred to the light as "hauga
elldr", or the sepulchral fire. All of our ancestors suggested
that flame-spirits lingered at the burial site until the
spirit of the dead moved on to another destination and
eventual reincarnation. The Micmacs said that the
skitekmuj provided faithful companionship after death just
as it provided protection and advice during the life of the
individual.

In the Atlantic Provinces the flame carried by the

guardian was referred to as a corpse-candle, since it was
often observed marking the route that the burial party
would follow from the home to the grave. The "candle" was
called a "fetch" when observed at sea. These flames were
not the elfs proper, but the the fires they carried. The
spirits were known as the will o' the wisps in our region,
but they have many other names: In Scandinavia they were
referred to as the lyktgubbe or irrbloss and in Germany as
the huckepoten or irrlichter. In Wales they were the
ellylldan; in France, the Tan Noz (burnt nosed people),
culards or loumerottes. The English once knew them as the
elf-fire men, kit-wi'-canstick (candlestick), jack
o'lanthorn, joan-in-the-wad, or hob-and-lanthorn (lantern).
The English and Scottish spunkies were traditionally
associated with the spirits of the unbaptized spirits of
dead children.

TEINE-GHEALAN. Phosphoric emission of light from decaying

wood.

TEINE-IOTOICHE, fire at night. In the Gaelic communities

the nights before the Quarter-Days were occasions for
creating bonfires, but at times of crisis, teine-eigin, or
need-fire, might be set "Tine or teind is the old Scots word
for a spark of fire, and on the frolicsome eve - the nicht
o'tine - there was fire everywhere - in the kitchen grates,
in the kitchen grates for the nuts, in the candles of the
turnip lanterns, in the village street, on the neighbouring
hill. It was the old Beltane fire of the Druid, the Baal-
worshipper." .

Sir James George Fraser has said that the gathering

first prepared their foods and drink in the open air on some
eminence. A pit was usually dug about the proposed fire-
site to contain the blaze so that it might not become
uncontrollable. When the meal was done, the assembly
entertained itself with "singing and dancing around the
flame. Towards the close of the entertainment, the person
who officiated as master of the feast (a one-time
representative of the god Lugh or some local deity)
produced a large cake baked with eggs and scalloped round
the edge, called an bonnach beal-tine, i.e. the Beltane Cake.
It was divided into a number of pieces, and distributed in
great form to the company. There was one particular piece
which whoever got it was termed Calleach beal-tine, the
Beltane "carline," a term of great reproach.

Upon his being known, part of the company laid hold on

him and made a show of putting him into the fire (in pagan
times they succeeded); but part of the company
(representing a late-developing humane aspect) imposed,
and he was rescued. In some places they laid him flat on
the ground, making as if to quarter him (an completed act in
earlier times). Afterwards he was pelted with egg shells
and retained the odious appellation (of winter-hag) during
the whole year. And while the feast was fresh in people's
memory, they affected to speak of the Cailleach beal-tine
as dead."
 In "modern times" the old Cailleach was replaced at
the next Beltane by a new victim. In the elder days the
ashes of this dead fool-king were scattered upon the
adjacent fields. The fire itself had the virtues of the sun-
god, cleansing the land, cattle and people wherever its rays
struck. Created by friction from an axle-tree, the fire
appeared almost magically as if derived from heaven. "They
esteemed it to be a preservative against witchcraft, and a
sovereign remedy against malignant diseases both in the
human species and in cattle; and by it the strongest poisons
were supposed to have their nature changed." It was noted
that the addition of human "potash" to the soil had a
beneficent effect on crop growth. Dead Gaels were routinely
burned, the ashes being scattered on fields where crops
were due to be planted.

TEINE NUAD, new fire. In ancient Ireland all fires burning

locally were extinguished before "new fire" was created and
carried back to the individual households. It is known that
the Celts dated their year from Samhuin day and that the
fires were thought to have a protective influence against
witchcraft wherever its rays happened to fall.

What is now Hallowe'en was also a festival for the

dead when the souls of departed friends and relatives
returned briefly to the warmth of former hearths. But these
were not the only visitors for the gods were all unbound at
this time as were the bhoabhs and the sidh; all visitors
"when autumn to winter resigns the pale year." T h e
planting of the new grain came well before the first of May,
but that was the time when the buds burst, and new life
was seen to flourish. It is also the time when cattle are
reintroduced to their highland meadows. In the Old Gaelic
calendar the first day of May was the end of winter and the
last day of April time for the Beultainn (Beltane) fires.
These varied little from the fires of Samhuinn.

In western Perthshire the Beltane was still practised

in the last century with participants being invited to take
portions of "an bonnach beal-tine" (beltane bannoch bread)
from a cap. One of these contained a portion that was
blackened with charcoal, and this was said the part of the
"devoted person". Strangely he was not honoured but was
said to be a sacrifice to "baal" (a general name for any local
god). In that day, this unfortunate was only required to leap
three times through the flames, but Fraser suggests "there
is little doubt of inhuman sacrifices having been once
offered in this country..." and he saw this as a surviving
rite. At both holidays, in more demanding times,
participants are known to have gathered fuel for the fire
while chanting "Gie us peat to burn the bhoabhs". As with
the Samhuinn fire, new fire was set and cattle driven three
times about the blaze with the expressed intention of
protecting them from witchcraft and "murrain". Each man
took home fire to kindle his own blaze. Fraser has said that
these customs persisted in Ireland "down to a time within
living memory." (ca 1922).

While more publicity has been given the "witch

festival" of Beltane, the Gaels themselves described
Samhuinn or Hallowday as the time of their great "feis" or
feast. Originally "it lasted for three days before Samain
and for three days after" and included a political assembly,
fair, marriage brokerage and entertainment in addition to
the religious rites. A great assemblage for games and
sports was held on the plains of Muiremne, in Louth during
three of the days of samhuinn.

TEINE-SIDE, the sithe-fire, "fairy" fire.

TEINE SITHE, wild-fire. Fire burning without constraints;

thought caused by the Daoine sidh.
TEINE-SIONNIC, SIONNACHAIN, fox-fire. luminiscence at
sea. rainbow of light seen in spindrift, a whirlwind. will-o’-
the-wisp. See also teine fionn, the sean na gelagie or Iiam
na lasoige, “Jack of the Bright Light,” or William of the
Little Flame. Sometime interpreted as a dispossessed
bafinn, or as a lost human soul. Its wanderings as an
isolated sphere of light, or carrying a light, have warned
and terrified travellers. Called the fetch in many parts of
Atlantic Canada. See thoir.

TEIN’-OIDHCHE, “night-fire,” same as tein-athair.

TEINE-THALL, the tall-fire, a ghost "fire-ship." One of the

most noted ships of this type is that seen periodically off
the Island of Eigg, Scotland. "The phantom ship careens
wildly past the island at lightning speed, and on the deck is
a long, lean black creature, with a fiddle in his hand,and he
is ever playing and dancing and laughing...awful was the
howling from below (decks)...Doubtless the fire ship was
conveying the soul of some unrighteous Southern Lord..."
(Kenneth MacLeod). The fire-ships were often said to be
piloted by Manann mac Ler, Lugh, or some other noted Gaelic
god.

TEINE THARA, The “will-o’-the-wisp; a haunt of the fens

and moors.

TENED, genitive of tene or teine, fire, the Anglo-Saxon

tannal. Eng. tan, cf. with Gaelic goddesses Te who may be
linguistically allied with Anu or Danu. A district fire as
opposed to local bonfires. In the Orkneys the Lugnasad or
Lammas fires persisted as the great “tannel” of the year.
Until the last century it was lit “on the last day of July, St.
Margaret’s Day, or Lammas Eve,” according to local
preference. “Formerly,” said a writer of that time, “it was
customary to do a reel about the tannel, but that has fallen
into desuetude.”

TEIN-THARA, the will o’ the wisp in English folklore. Also

entitled Dain Iain Ghobha.

TEINTIDH, “firey creature,” a dragon.

TEIRIDNEACH, having medicinal value, curative powers.

TERIRMEAG ORT! An infamous curse: “Mishap on you!”

TEó, warm, a nickname for Lugh, god of the sun, a male form
of Te, cf. deas, right, south, dia, a god. Same as the Eng.
tepid. Matching the Gaullish god Teutates the “god of the
people” mentioned by Lucan in the first century. Sacrificial
victims dedicated to him were drowned in a vat or cauldron.

TETHRA, teth, hot. A Fomorian warrior, “The Lord of the

Joyous Otherworld,” therefore, a side-form of Manann mac
Ler. He took part in the second battle of Magh Tuireadh and
lost his magic sword Orna, which was subsequently found
and used by the god Ogma.

TEUD, string, cord, rope, stringed instument and by

extension music, teudaiche, a harper.One of the magical
arts.
TEUMANNAN, magically inspired whims, temptations,
inclinations, teum. a bite, a wound, sarcasm, a fit.

TEURMNASG, bandages tied to the thumbs and big toes of a

dead person to keep his spirit from harming his living foes.

THALL, Beyond, Over, abroad, the other side, the Otherworld.

THENEVA, te, she the patroness-saint of Glasgow, Scotland,

possibly in remembrance of the pagan goddess Nemain or
Macha. A princess of the Picts she defied her father by
refusing to marry Owen, prince of Cumbria. Driven from
home she sheltered with a swineherd, who was a Christian,
and taught her his faith. At some point Theneva became
pregnant, and the doubly enraged father commanded she be
thrown from a cliff into the sea. Miraculously she survived
this mishandling and escaped from the place by boat. Guided
by a shoal of fish she came to Culrose and there gave birth
to a son. A hermit resident on the island, baptized mother
and son, and afterwards Thevena moved to Glasgow. Her son
grew up to be the famed Saint Mungo, and is currently co-
patron of Glasgow. See Mungan, Neimhidh.

THOIR, a fetch, the "dead-light" seen at sea. After the ON.

Thor, the Gaelic Tor, Tar or Taranis, a god of the upper air
and the controller of thunder. Thoir-clann, a taran, the
unconsecrated ghosts of the dead particularly when seen
over the sea as “corpse-candles.” The equivalent of the
land-based fear dreag (which, see). Based on the Irish
tabhair (a "crushed" form of the word), give thou, fetch
information. The early G. is toir, to pursue, perhaps based
on the English Tory. Related to G. torrunn, thunder and to
Thor, the Old Norse god who preceded Odin as the pre-
eminent god of the north. See also tabsh, an apparition or
ghost. Lighting effects seen over the open ocean, the spirit
of Thor incarnate, observed hovering as a globe of light
above the waters. In later days, the "dragon-ships" of the
Old Norse carried lights at their bows and these were
harbingers of death and destruction. The "fetch-light," or
"corpse-candle" had the appearance of a land-travelling
"will o' the wisp, " or "jack wi’ lanthorn." As a rule it
commenced action as a pin-point of light which expanded to
the size of "a puncheon head." It behaved erratically over
the water, sometimes rising vertically "to the height of
two vessel spars", and zig-zagging as it travelled.

In Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, it was termed "Jacob's

ball," while those who lived in northeastern New Brunswick
referred to it as "John Craig's light." Some observers
insisted the light was carried across the waves by a ghost-
figure, but whatever the format, the thoir was considered
to presage storms at sea, probably accompanied by loss of
life. It was sometimes thought that these "fetches"
represented the bafinne of the living, spirits that travelled
from the wreck of a ship, to land, to report the impending
death of the human who was their cowalker. Unemployed
after the death, some such spirits seem to have been
condemned to repeat these last actions although this was
not invariably the case. At the entrance to Antigonish
Harbour, Nova Scotia: "People saw it wend its way up the
channel and disappear. A strange boy was drowned just
where the light appeared, and his body was taken up the
channel (by boat) for burial. It was believed that the light
was the forerunner of this death, for it was never seen
afterwards. (Folklore of Nova Scotia, p. 50).

TIACHAIR. perverse, ill-disposed, sick, a dwarf, MIr.

troublesome.

TIADHAN, a little hill, a small stone, Ir. , a testicle.

TIADHLAIGEAN, TIADLAIGEAN a laoighcionn, calf, calf-skin,

enclosing a tiadhan, testicle, a magic amulet, but also a
play on words, being also testicles in their scrotum. A
charm. “That which would make anyone who had them get
anything he wished.”

TIAMHAIDH, gloomy, lonesome, dead. Death, Ir. tiamdha,

dark, afraid.
TIBIRT, fountains (Uist). “The custom of visiting wells on
the Quarter Days, or days of the saints, may be traced to a
pagan water-cult of pre-Druidic origin.” See tobar.

TIDE, time, tide, from Icelandic tith, As. tid, Germ zeit, Eng.
tide, as in Yuletide.

TIGH, for taigh, a house, a place in which the druids taught

classes. The last of these was on North Uist in the
Hebrides. Missionaries and their adherents fired these
buildings following the excesses of the Reformation (1618-
1625) in Scotland. The form is properly taigh or teach, OIr.
teg, covered over, the Eng. thatch, conferring with tuath,
which see.

TIGHEARN, house-owner, Lord, chief ruler, baronet, master,

superior, proprietor of an estate, today: any land-owner no
matter how insignificant. After an unfortunate Irish king
whose people were largely destroyed by the god known as
Cromm.

TIGH DIOCUIL., astronomical observatory of the druids.

TIGH DO, TIGH DON, TIGH DOMH, the “House of Don,” There
was a second branch of magic-makers aside from the House
Of Lera. Not much is known of the antecedents of the House
of Don: The patriarch is said to have been Mathgaman, from
math, a bear, good, forgiving, tame; combined with
gamhainn, (the French gamin) a year old animal or stirk. It
is thought that the word may compare with the Welsh
madawg, a fox, and that it may appear in the Gaullish names
Matugenos, Matuus and Teutomatus. Note that this last
interpretation brings us full circle to the god Teus the
Gaelic Hu. This last word becomes the Welsh huan, the sun.
Hence, mathgaman, the “bear-god.” The high-bear is of
course mathair, the Welsh modryb, the Latin mater, the
Norse móthir, our word mother.

In Welsh myth the patriarch of all the land gods was

said to be Mathonwy. Please note the corresponding
Brythonic “god” Artair who seems to derive from arto-s, a
bear. From him we have clann M’Artair, the Mac-arthurs.

This shadowy figure, who may be cognate with Don

himself, probably gave rise to the Gaelic goddess Danu, who
the Welsh labelled as Dòn. Her brother was named Math,
creating another element of confusion with the parent-gods.
Fortunately Math had no offspring of his own, but Danu,
sometimes called Anu, Boann, Boyne or Dana married Beul,
the Mouth (of Death) creating the hierarchy of land-gods for
the people known as the Tuatha daoine, literally, the folk of
Danu. Beul, whose holiday was the Beultuinne (fires of
Beul) was the son of Mangan, a “brother” to Mathgaman,
since his name translates as “one born of the bear,” and is
quite probably a side-form of Mathgamon. Beul (pronounced
beahl), or Bile, or Bil, who the Welsh called Beli, and the
Gauls Bele, was informally the Dagda, the “daddy” or father
of the deagh, the good ones, or the gods.

In Irish myths the sons of this Union were Ogma of the

Honeyed Tongue, the god of politicians and tricksters;
Aonghas Og, the Young and Choice One, the god of love; and
Lugh, god of the sun, and Nuada, god of the moon. A daughter
was Bridd, or Bride, who the Christians preferred to name
Saint Brigit or Brigid. There were, of course, many extra-
marital children, the most fearsome the multi-headed
Macha who had a heart made of ice.

In Welsh myth the genealogy is more complex, the

children being noted as Gwydion, the slayer of Pryderi, the
keeper of the gates of the dark land; Arianrod, a dawn-
goddess; Gilvaethwy; Ameethon, god of agriculture;
Govannan, the smith-god (who is noted as the Goban saor in
Irish myth); Nudd or Lludd, the sky-god; Pendaron, a goddess
and the “twins” Nynniaw and Peibaw. within these lines,
Gwydion the defender of men and the gods against the dark
lords married his sister Arianrod, giving us Nwyvre, Dylan
and Llew or Llaw, the last being cognate with the Gaelic
sun-god Lugh. This being the case, Lugh of The Long Arm is
a third generation god. The sun-god may correspond
somewhat with the second-generation Welsh Llud, who is
also a sky-god. His son was Gwy, warder of Hades
sometimes called Avalon, an island of the west. To confuse
the issue, Pendarun a sister to Lugh, married the god the
Welsh called Llyr, giving rise to the House of Llyr or Ler.
Thus it is clear that the sea gods and the land gods were one
race rather than separate entities as Tuathan mythology
sometimes suggested. It is critical to note that Don is an
inextricable mix of local gods including Ler, Manann mac
Ler, and Beul (the continental Dis) in the Fomorian camp,
and Dagda and Lugh in the Tuathan division. Within the
genealogical chart of the House of Don, the dark lord is seen
“married” to Danu, the mother-goddess, but in a parallel
diagram of relationships for the House of Ler, this same
lady (albeit given the name Domnu) is shown as the throne-
mate of the sea-god. Things which are equal to the same
thing are equal to one another; Q.E.D. Danu is Domnu and Don
or the Dagda or Beul is Ler.

The bear-god is, therefore, the representative of the

ultimate creator-god on earth, a single entity fractioned in
the memories of diverse peoples. He is man-god, born to die
because of miscegenation, his immortal genes overcome by
mating with lesser folk. This dawn-being (the English
word confers) is a dual personality, with a summer and a
winter face; having alter egos, symbolizing day and night,
the sun and the moon, heat and cold, good and evil, male and
female, the athair (father) and the nathair (snake, one who
is not the father).

The same may be said for his mate, the goddess Danu
of the House of Don, or Domnu of the House of Ler. In sum
they are the Daoine sidh, the “people of peace,” the light-
bearers, who strove and defeated the Fomoraigh or under
sea folk, creatures of ill and darkness. In a sense, the
problems between the land and sea-people are reflected in
the attempts of men to overcome their dark nature. The
Gauls affirmed that they were descended from Dis, who the
Romans called Dispater: “For this reason the determine all
periods of time by the number, not of days, but of nights,
and their observance of birthdays and the beginning of
months and years always follows night.” The English term
“fortnight” speaks of this older measurement of time

TIGH LEAR, the “House of Ler.” islands in the western

Atlantic, the great ocean proper.

TIGH SUNTAIS, a gymnasium, a place used in the evening for

story-telling, music, and dancing. Associated with the
druidic academies.

TIGHEARNA, AN, The Lord (God). The first bearing this name
was the son of Follach, “Lord of Death,” so called from his
worship of Cromm. In the king lists he is given as the
twenty-sixth high-king of Ireland, in the Milesian
succession. He was the first to mine gold in Ireland,
introduced tartans as symbols of rank, and created the
worship of Cromm Cruach. He and most of his people
mysteriously died during worship of that idol. Cognate with
Don, the god of the Otherworld. This word was latterly
applied to the Christian god. Also the Gaelic counterpart of
the Middle English Allfather. Always referred to obliquely
for fear of drawing his unwanted attention. Some called him
An Tigherarna (The Lord). Others identified him as An
Olathir (The Father of Drink). He was also Uil-athir, the
All-embracing Father). More often he was simply An Athir
(The Father of All) or Ard Athir (The High Father). From this
last we have the English name Arthur. Be-al was another
name given the creator-god. Thomas Bulfinch says the name
is Druidic in origin and has translated it as "the life of
everything," or "the source of all being." Bulfinch though it
likely that Be-al, sometimes given as Be-ul or Be-ol or Ba-
il, had affinities with the Phoenician Baal: "Druids as well
as Phoenicians identified this (god), their supreme deity,
with the Sun. Fire was regarded as a symbol of the
divinity..." 1

TIGH MOR, the Lord's house, Heaven. Possibly conferring

with the earth- bound Tea Mor , “Great Tea,” or Tara. After
Eremon’s wife.

TINNEAS, illness, evil, distemper. Similar to the English

attenuate. Tinneas-na-gealaich, lunacy, an eclipse, tinneas-
na-Domhnullach, a pulmonary infection, also termed
glacach. The Macdonalds possessed this remedy after saving
and showing kindness to a shipwrecked foreign sailor. This
was managed by reciting a duan over the patient who was
then touched with the right hand.

TINNSGEADAL, a bad omen, tinn + sgeach, sick + hawthorn.

The hawthorn flowers were said to bring illness when taken
into the homes of men. This plant was said to grow at the
entrances of the homes of the Daoine sidh and was
associated with them and their magic. In general the fruit
of this plant and the wood was considered beneficent.

TIOBART, obs., a well, OG. tiprat, Ir. tiobar, EIr. tipra, Celtic
verb bervo, to seethe, to boil over, Germ. brunnen, Eng. burn.
Similar to G. tobar, which, see.

TIONNAIL, likeness of a person or thing. An object of

sympathetic magic.

TIOR, dry, kiln-dry, EIr. tir, to dry, see tir. Cf. tiorail, warm,
cosy, sheltered, familiar, pleasant. Tiorc, to save, deliver
from disaster.

TIR, TIRE, TIREAN, land, earth, country, region, shore,

beach, coast, terra firma, The root appears to be ters, to be
dry. Confers with tuatha, We have previously argued that the
Tuatha daoine were outlawed from Ireland to the north-
western sea islands including those beyond the West Isles
and the Hebrides, and their places of refuge are almost
universally prefixed with the GaelicTir. This archaic word
is usually translated English as land, but is fairly certain to
be the name of the old northern god, who the English still
remember in Tues-day. As we have shown elsewhere this
word compares with Tuatha, “the people of Tua,” and these
all confer with the Gaelic tugha which is the English word
“tiled,” and the Middle-English Tyle. A similar Latin form
is terra from ters, “dry,” buttressing out idea that the
original form of the word implied a surround of water. See
tuatha. Tireachadh, colony, the act of settlement on foreign
shores, disembarkation. Tireanach, landsman, similar to
tuathanach.

TIR-A'-GHEALLAIDH, the Land of Promise. Hy-Breas-il or an

associated island.

TIR BREG, The names Bregon and Ith presumably originated

in the west (although the Milesians said otherwise) but
Muster itself was sometimes entitled Tir Breg and its
inhabitants were referred to as Bregians. It was supposedly
named after their place of origin, a far western land. In
later days the Munstermen became associated with the
Celtic redoubt known as Bregançon an island in the Bay of
Hyéres, France, but this does not mean that this was their
old homeland. The Gaelic brèagh, passes into English as fine
or bright. An earlier Middle English form of the word was
breht; another was brig, conferring with the Gaelic brig, a
heap, a pile, possibly suggesting an ocean-island. The Norse
form of this is brik, from which “brick,” suggesting a
block-shaped place. The related brigh infers power, dignity
or rank but bris, lively, brittle, or hasty suggests men of a
quixotic nature, while bras is the Gaelic for rash. All of
these words settle on Breas, the one-time High King of
Ireland, who unknown to everyone but his mother, was half-
Fomorian. It was his rejection by the Tuatha daoine that led
to the convulsive war between the “giants” and the “gods.”
Tir Breg is probably the Hy Breasil to which this
unfortunate loser was banished. Something can also be made
of the name given his son Ith. As a verb the Gaelic ith
means to eat, and what the islanders ate was ioth, or corn.
We may presume that the Tir Breg was aiothlann, or
cornland, as dead as it may have been in other respects. See
the goddess Breg.

TIR FO-TONN. the Land Under the Wave, the Undersea

Kingdom of the Fomorian giants. fo + tonn, “under a wave,”
EIr. tond, the root tu, boiling up, to swell to bursting, Lat.
tumeo, Eng. thumb, AS. theótan, to howl, the ON. thjóta,
howl, whistle (as the wind, etc.) Perhaps allied with the
Lat. tund, to beat, Skr. tud, to push, the dia. Eng. fuck. From
the same root, tón, the anus, the Eng. thigh. See G. famhair.
A “fairyland” far out in the western Atlantic, which seemed
to sink into the ocean as mariners approached. Actually
there were a number of such hidden islands, in fact a fair
number of European islands are said to have been reclaimed
at the expense of Fomorian holdings. Among these are three
Norwegian islands said to have been former huldrelande, or
“fairy-lands.” The derivation of this word is from the ON
hulder, i.e. “holers” or “hellers,” those living in the
Underworld. The Gaelic toll, a hole, all after the famed
goddess Hel. Nansen says that hulder also means “hidden,”
in which case reference is made to islands of a hidden
people or islands which are hidden. Notice that the Norse
referred to the early Scots as Hellr.

When Bran, the mariner, encountered Manann mac Ler

on the high sea, the lord of the dead, who was travelling
eastward, paused to explain that Bran was voyaging above
Magh Mell, the “Happy Plain (of the Ocean),”, where people
were sitting at their tables, catttle grazing, and great
forests growing all unperceived. This was the Gaelic Tir
fo-Tonn. Nansen has noted that the way to these “hidden
lands” was always”through darkness and mist, or sea and
water. He also says: “A blending of the fairies (sid-people)
and the inhabitants of these lands is particularly observable
in the Irish legends. The people of the sid dwell partly in
the grave mounds (and are thus like our haugebonde or
mound-elf), they also live in happy lands far west in the sea
or under the sea, and are thus sea-elves.”

We are informed that Nordfuglöi, to the north of

Karlsöi was originally “troll-ridden, under the sea and
invisible to men, thus a “huldre” island. But certain troll-
hags (witches) betook themselves to towing it to land; a
Lapp hag who happened to cast her eye through the door-
opening saw them come rowing with the island, so that the
spray dashed over it, and cried, “Oh, what a good fertile
land, we have now obtained..” And thereupon the island
stopped at the mouth of the sea, where it now stands
(Nicolayssen, 1889). It is claimed that Buskholm at Sunnmör
in Norway was similarly recovered and that Svinöiin the
Faeroes was once a fay-island. The former was said once
“inhabited by underground beings and protected, i.e.
thoroughly overgrown with trees and bushes.” Legends of
“floating” and “sinking” islands are legion throughout the
Atlantic.

The foremost floating-island was perhaps Eiru or

“Ireland,” which was said to be quite without roots at the
time of the great World Flood. Lucas Debes (1673) has said
that “at various times a floating island is said to have been
seen among the Faroes; but no one can reach it. The
inhabitants also tell of Svinöe, “Swine Island,” how that in
the beginning it was a floating island; and they think that if
one could come to this island, which is often seen, and
throw steel upon it, it would stand still... Many things are
related of such floating islands, and some think that they
exist in nature.” For his own part Debes concluded that such
islands were most likely icebergs calved off Greenland.
Others thought they were constructions of the Devil or the
Söe Draulen, or “sea-trows.” It is said that the Svinöi in
the Faeroes was brought to light “through a sow on which
steel had been bound.”

If some islands have been rescued from the deep,

others remain elusive as well as illusive: In 1125 A.D.
Augustodunensis wrote concerning the Atlantic islands of
the Hesperides, “that have the golden apples... To these
islands belonged the great island which according to the
tale of Plato sank with its inhabitants, and which exceeded
Africa and Europe in extent, (and which lies underwater)
where the “curdled sea,” (the Arctic?) now is... There lies
also in this Ocean an island called the Lost (Perdita); in
charm and all kinds of fertility it far surpasses every other
land, but is now unknown to men. Now and again it is found
by chance; but if one (actively) seeks it, it cannot be found,
and therefore is called “the Lost.” Men say that it is this
island that Brandanus (Saint Brendan) came to.”

In a similar vein, Columbus says in his diary, that

the inhabitants of the Canary Islands reported seeing land in
the west where none was to be detected. Expeditions were
mounted to find this western mirage, which the Dutchman
named Van Linschoten (1589) speaks of as the beautiful lost
land of San Borondon (Saint Brendan). This he asserted was
a place “a hundred leagues (about 300 land miles) west of
the Canaries. Its inhabitants are said to be Christians, but
it is not known what nations they are, or what language
they speak; certainly the Spaniards of the Canaries have
made many vain efforts to find it.

This same island, which sometimes shows itself, but

withdraws when one tries to approach it, still lives in
Spanish folklore under the name “San Morondon.” Off the
coast of Britain one finds similar floating island; “They
always fly before ships and one can never land there. They
are drawn along by the devil, who compels the souls of
drowned men who have deserved Hell and are damned, rto
stay in such places till the Judgement Day. On some of them
the roar of a terrible beast is heard; and sailors look upon
the meeting with such an island as a sinister warning.”

There are even North American floating islands, and

the Iroquois of the eastern coast imagined that the earth
was the creation of a god who ruled from an “island” in
space, a place surrounded by realms of eternal peace and
solitude, very like the Celtic An Domahin, where there was
“no desire, no sorrow, no pain, and where Death had no
presence or dominion.”

This “Isle of the Blest,” was sometimes said to be

located in the Ocean east of Boston, “a green land; it flies
when one approaches, and no white man can ever reach its
shores. According to Harriet Maxwell Conversly, this island
was distantly perceived by an Indian who pursued it as his
Death approached in 1886; “He disappeared (in a canoe) in a
storm the likes of which had never been known and after
this the enchanted island was never seen again.”

The idea of a floating mirage is found embodied in the

Norse word Villuland (from villa ; illusion, glamour).
Interestingly, this name was applied to the mythic island of
Frisland (said to lie southwest of Iceland) which in one
manuscript is called Villi-Skotland. This might make it the
equal of Irland it Mikla, “Ireland the Great,” another
supposedly fabulous Atlantic island. Are Marsson supposedly
travelled to Villuland and remained a resident for a number
of years. Many of the undersea islands were abroad by night
but had the habit of falling back into the sea at night. “If
one could only bring fire, or steel, upon them, then the spell
of submergence was broken and they remained up, but the
Undersea folk avenged themselves on the people who caused
such loss, and many humans were turned to stone.”

Because animals were often used to rescue sea-lands,

some were afterwards named after the species to which
steel was attached. Many of the lakes of Ireland and
Scotland contained mystery islands, but the ultimate Gaelic
Island was Hy Breasil which Geraldus Cambrensis (12th
century) said could be seen from western Irish shores on
every clear day, “but vanished when people approached it.”
Many came within bowshot, and at least one sailor shot a
red-hot iron arrow-head on its shores after which it
became fixed for a time. Hy Breasil was reported to be
above water once in every seventh year. See separate entry
under this designation. The Land-Under-Waves was a
desired haven for the drowned.

A Hebridean woman questioning the spirit of her

departed husband asked if he were not “cold in your bed?”
He responded: “Here it is neither too cold, nor too hot, but
what a man might get if granted that which he wished.”
Well she mused “It must be lonely, at least?” “Nae,” he
said, “ the best heroes of Alba strand beside me, the best
bards of Ireland; and what they do not know the seals and
swans tell us!” “Aye,” noted the woman, “are we not foolish
to weep after men-folk and they so happy!” It is said that
more than one shade from the ocean has returned to the
shore entreating a wife not to mourn and thus sully his
happiness in the Otherworld. In the islands it is guessed
that. “The sadest death ius the two-fold death. This comes
to the man who drowns once in the Ocean and once in the
salt of a loved-onne’s tears.” The sea-sorrow is also
considered a danger to the person who mourns. To sing a
drowning-song more than twice , especially at sunset, not
only sorrows the dead but can anger them.

There are stories without number of dead who have

come back ashore to upbraid their women-folk. Excesses of
joy and grief are thought to tempt any Providence in the old
gods. “Laughing ovrermuch is an omen for tears; but weeping
overly is tatramount to far greater evil.” On the whole, if
there must be excess, the folk suggest equal parts of
laughter and tears, for that totally confused ocean-spirits.

TIR IATH, Tiree, “the land of Eth or Ith, Latin, Ethica Terra.
Also seen as Heth, Heth regio, terra Heth. Later iath. ON.
Tyrvist. Their form for Uist. See Ith.

TIR MÄG, MAGH, the “Lazy Bed Land,” or the “Fertile Land,”
as a result of indolence? More directly, mäg, a paw, a hand,
a ridge of arable land, EIr. mác from the root man, a hand,
magh, a fertile plain or field. One of the lands in the
western Atlantic.

TIR MÓR, the Great Land, which Nansen thinks may confer
with the ON. Vithland, better known in mythological history
as Vinland the Good. Another of the mythic Atlantic islands.

TIR-NAN-BAS, Land of the Dead. The people who travelled

with Lady Cassir, the daughter of Bith were spoken of as the
descendants of Nodha. Writers of the Christian era assumed
that they were the “sons of the Biblical “Noah.” This
seemed to be reinforced by the myth that they came to
Ireland from a land named Tir-nan-Bas, which they took to
mean “the Land of Basques.” They equated with modern
Spain. It was, therefore, supposed that the folk of the
patriarch named Bith or Ith must have sailed to Spain out
of the Eastern Ocean, now known as the Mediterranean Sea.
Nodha is, of course, a form of Nuada (pronounced nood-a),
the “New-One,” the twin-brother of the creator god Lugh
(pronounced look-a) and has no connections with Christian
mythology. Bas is the Gaelic word for “death,” so their
origin was in “The Land of the Dead,” which traditionally
lay on an “island” somewhere in the Atlantic.

This interpretation makes their seven year journey to

Ireland more plausible. A cruise along the Mediterranean
would hardly have required that length of time. The Bas-
breton, or Basques, probably received their names from
their war-like habits, as well as from the fact that they
claimed decent from the “Lords of Death.” The place where
Fintann’s folk settled was ultimately named Munster and it
became a province in the south. The name is an anglicized
form of the Gaelic Muhan with the Old Norse ster ending.
Earlier forms were Mumu and Muma. The Munster kings only
grudgingly admitted kinship with other people in Ireland,
and only recognized the high-kingship at Tara in the ninth
century A.D.

TIR N-AM-BUAIDH, Land of Virtue, or Victory, OIr. buaid,

Eng. booty, ON. byta, exchange, barter, Eng. boot, formerly
that seized as plunder. One of the mythic Atlantic sea-
lands in the western ocean. Notice that the “sea-masks” or
respirators worn by the sea-trows were sometimes
referred to as the “caps of virtue.” See cuhulann druidhean.

TIR-NA-FER, The Land of Men, comparable with Tir-na-m-

ban. “It may further appear that there is some connection
between the ideas that appear in certain Irish legends of
the land of virgins - where there are no men, and the virgins
go to the neighbouring land of men to be Married (Zimmer,
1889). This is similar to the conception of the island of
Sena, off the coast of France, where a group of “virgin”
priestesses served prophets to seamen of that coast. As the
presence of men was thought to negate their powers of
prophecy, these “morgans” “had to visit men on the
neighbouring coast, and return after having intercourse with
them.”

TIR-NA-FER-FIONN, the Land of White Men, another mythic

oceanic place mentioned in Irish tales from the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries. The white men (fer fionn) seem to
confer with the L. albati, the white-robed men of the
British Isles, the G. Alba.

This land may also be the Norse Hvitramannaland,

“White-man’s Land,” supposedly sited somewhere in North
America. Nansen says that all these names are “direct
renderings of the Latin Terra Albatorum, “the land of the
baptized who are dressed in white. Those so costumed wore
the baptismal garb for a week after their plune, dip or
sprinkling. Björn Asbrandsson appears in the Old Norse
Eyrbyggja Saga as the illicit lover of Snorre Gode’s sister,
Thurid, the wife of Thorodd. By her Björn had an illegitimate
son named Kjartan. Björn had to leave Iceland in a hurry
because of this affair and made the error of leaving land in
late autumn with his lady-friend on board. “Afterwards the
ship was not heard of for many days.” Gudleif Gudlaugsson
now enters the story as a wealthy merchant trading out of
Dublin in the last years of the reign of St. Olaf of Norway.
He sailed westward making for Iceland and encountered
fierce north-east winds so that he was driven than he
wished into unknown waters. Finally, his ship came upon a
great land previously unknown to the Norse.

Although no one knew any of these people it was soon

observed that they spoke Irish. Soon several hundred of
these folk swarmed about their craft, seized and bound
them, and drove them into the interior of their country. They
were brought before some kind of judicial forum and a
sentence, which they could not understand, was pronounced
on them. They did, however, understand that some of the
assembly wished to have them killed, while others
suggested they simply be utilized as slaves. While this was
going on, a great band of men on horseback approached, many
carrying banners. They were led by a stately man of great
age, and from his white hair, they guessed he might be their
chief. All those in attendance bowed to him, and he went
straight to the Norsemen and addressed them fluently in
their own language. After he had heard that most of them
were Iceland, he began to talk knowingly of all the
important men in that place, and he enquired particularly
after various people in particular Kjartan, who was now a
principal figure in Iceland. After this, the big man turned to
discuss the fate of the Norse with his countrymen, and then
he turned and gave the Icelanders leave to depart.

Although the summer was almost over, this man

advised them to make their departure immediately as the
temper of the country could not be trusted. He would not
reveal his name saying only that he had relatives in Iceland
and did not wish them to undertake a long sea-voyage to
find him as he was elderly and probably would not be found
alive. Further, he noted, that without his presence
foreigners were likely to be treated with far less respect.
After this their patron had a ship fitted out for them, and
when a favourable wind arose bid them farewell at the quay.
As they were about to part, he handed Gudleif a gold ring
and a sword saying, “If chance allows you to return to
Iceland give the sword to Kjartan, and the ring to Thurid,
his mother.” When Gudleif asked if there was any message
to accompany these gifts. The master of the far land said
enigmatically”: “Say to them that he who sent these goods
was more a friend of the mistress of Frotha than of the
“gode” of Halgafell, her brother...”

Gudleif then put to sea and he and his men did make
Ireland late that autumn. They stayed the winter at Dublin,
and the following summer sailed to Iceland where they
delivered the gifts of Björn Asbrandsson. Norse historians
say that the leading character in this tale had adventures
very like those of Are Mársson who appears in the
Landnáma. In this book Are is said to have made a crossing
from Iceland to Hvitramannaland, or “White man’s land,”
“which some call Irland hit Mikla, or “Ireland the Great.”
This account tells us less than we would like, but does note
that it lay “near Winland,” somewhere in the western ocean,
“six dœgr’s sail to the west of Ireland proper. Are, who was
also an Icelandic chief was driven there by storms, but was
never allowed to depart although he was baptized in that
country and held in great esteem by the populace.

The White man’s land is also mentioned in the Saga of

Eric the Red, who said it lay “opposite Markland,” which is
most often taken to be present-day Quebec or Labrador.
Finally in the Eyrbyggja Saga there is another tale of a
voyage which had this same country as its object, although
it was not mentioned using either name. It has been noted
that Thorkel Gellison is given as the source of information
about this place in the Landnáma. As he lived at the close of
the eleventh century, the tale could hardly be much younger
than that date.

White man’s land might be thought to have a

reference to skin colour, a surprising anomaly in North
America at that century, but it might have other
connotations as well: The Old Norse hwit , confers with the
Anglo-Saxon wit , a “wise man,” the opposite of wit-les.
These men were foregathered to create the witan, the
Anglo-Saxon councils that advised the high-kings. The word
can be show to derive from the Old Norse god Odin or Woden
and to have side forms as: wood, weather and witch. There
is a Celtic form of this last word, probably derived from
English, viz. buitseach. Related to this is buitseach, a
“witches curse or a threat.” This is thought to lean on boid,
a vow, hence, “those who have taken vows.” This takes us
back to the ancient Irish Isles of the Blest, the Tuatha
daoine and the druids. Tartaned wearing apparel was not a
feature of British society until the time of Tighernmas ard
righ , the seventh king in the Milesian line, which brought
the weave from Spain. “To him, or his successor Eochaid, is
credited the ancient ordinance which distinguished the
various classes and professions by the colours of their
dress: A king or queen might wear seven colours; a poet six,
a chieftain five, an army leader four, a land owner three, a
rent-payer two, a serf one colour only.”

Tradition says that the Milesians arrived in Ireland

about the year 1000 B.C. Before this time the entire
population, male and female, rich and poor, wore the high-
necked, long-sleeved garment which the Romans termed an
albus. They selected this word, which means “white,”
because this belted shift was made of linen, which is
naturally brown in colour but bleaches in the sun to dazzling
whiteness. From this, the Latin Albion, a name for all of
Britain, and from it the Gaelic Alba , which now applies to
Scotland alone. In some parts the chieftains distinguished
themselves by wearing the orange kilts, which are still
seen in paraded of modern Irishmen. In later times wool
supplanted linen as the material of choice for the nobility.
The Tuatha daoine, who were in power when the Milesians
arrived in Ireland never surrendered the traditional white
linen albus and this was also true of the conservative
druidic class that managed religious rites.

When Christian missionaries came to Britain they had

the smarts to make themselves indistinguishable from the
vates by wearing white linen, and many Christian priests
still wear this basic uniform beneath their black supplice.
In the Navigatio Brandani the travellers landed on an Insula
Viroum Fortium, an “Island of Virile and Strong” people. In
that same tale this place is also referred to as “The Isle of
the Anchorites.” It was said that three generations of men
dwelt there. The youngest generation had “clothes as white
as driven snow.” Their parents wore clothes the colour of
hyacinth, and the oldest generation wore clothes of purple.
Notice the connotation of white with virginity and
wholesomeness, one which has translated into the “White
Christ,” and white baptismal garments, the latter was
termed the albati.

Things get even stranger, for the Irish legends are

fond of naked old men who wear nothing other than their
white hair. The old man who welcomed Brandon to his
promised land was one of anchorites, his body covered with
dazzling white feathers, like a dove or a gull.” In a Latin
account of Brendon’s life this man is identified as Paulus,
and again he has no clothes, but is here described as
“covered with white hair.” In both cases the man is said to
have come to this remote oceanic island from Ireland.

In Maelduin’s voyage, which is older than the travels

of Brendon, the hero meets similar hermits, one on an island
which he shared with sheep, and another on “a rock in the
sea.” These men were also Irish and used their body hair for
clothing. On two other islands Maelduin encountered islands
having “soil as white as feathers,” with naked men to
match. Again in the Navigatio, Brendon meets an aged man
“with hair the colour of snow with a shining white
countenance. His head and hairs were white like wool, as
white as snow; his eyes as flames of fire.”

Notice that the druidic bards who were at the head of

their profession wore bird-feather cloaks but these were
parti-coloured, so the Christian motif may have been a
rejection of this style, a return to ultimate basics. The
character mentioned above, who was found on the Insula
Alibius is understood to be Jesus Christ incarnate. Not all
the hairy creatures of western Europe were Christian, thus
we have the Germanic wildermann, the villemand or “wild
man” of certain Norwegian tales. These are the woodwose
of England, the brownies of the Shetlands and the bodache
of Scotland and Ireland and there elders were always
described as white-haired. Among the Gaels, in general,
there was an attachment between whiteness and
supernatural beings. The national hero of the south was
Fionn mac Cumhail , and while fionn is frequently translated
as “fair-haired” it actually indicates “white.” Bebhionn or
Vivienne the giantess who comes from the west seeking
Fionn’s help is characterizes as “the white woman,”
because she had “dazzling white hair.”

The physician Labhra, at the court of Manann mac Ler,

has three beautiful white-haired daughters, and the
“billow-maidens” of the god himself show their hair in the
breaking waves. When Mider, the king of the side-hill tried
to lure Etain away from her husband he says: “Oh, white
woman, will you not go with me to the Land of Marvels?...thy
body is one in beauty, whiteness to the very crown of your
head.”

Again, Saint Brendon finds a corresponding sea-

maiden, “whiter than snow or sea-spray.” Again, the women
of the Daoine sidh are frequently described as “the white
women,” and the ban-sithe; or “white sids,” are definitely
of this class, as are the fates, who are termed the bas-
finne, the “death-women.” The Norse elfs of the upper world
are similarly identified as the liosalfar, the “light-elfs,”
and they have their uncanny counterpart in the svartaffar or
“dark elfs.” The elf-maidens of Sweden were said to be
“slender as a lily and white as snow,” and are frequently
designated as albae nymphæ, “white nymphs.” During the
transformation on the mountain the Bible says that Jesus’
face “did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the
light.” In another place it says, “his raiment was as white
as the light.”

This conference of pagan and Christian ideas led to

the concept that the world beyond the grave (in the west)
was “a fair shining land.” Thus, in the Floamanna Saga
Thorgil’s wife saw in her dream “a fair country filled with
menn bjarta, “shining white men.” and her husband said this
was “the other world” where one could expect help from
“holy men.” In Eric the Red’s Saga the Hvitramanalandrs go
about in white clothes, carrying poles before them, crying
aloud as they proceed. As these are “poles to which strips
are attached,” there is a strong suggestion that the island
of “Greater Ireland” hosted holy day parades which now
continue as ecclesiastical processions. In earlier times,
these may have arisen from pagan models just as the white
mitts out in the ocean appear to represent pagan
supernaturals of an earlier age. The Gaelic fionn, “white,”
has at its root the Celtic vid, “to see,” and a variant
appears in the Gaelic word fion, which relates directly
with the Latin vinum, the English wine and the Old Norse
win or vin, “white or clear wine.”

This confluence explains the confusion of some of the

place names seen in medieval literature and on maps of the
period: Hvitramanaland seems to be represented in Ranulp
Higden’s Polychronicon as Wyntlandia. In the various
editions of Higden’s maps it is called Witland, Wintlandia,
and Wineland, and this is the short list of variants. In this
work the islands (bordering the Atlantic Ocean) are given as
follows; “Insulae Fortunatæ (furthest south), and
immediately after Dacia (Denmark), and to the west of this
island Wyntlandia which stands beside Islandia (Iceland),
which has Norway to the south and the Polar Sea to the
north. Tile (Thule) is the extreme island on the north-west.”
The description suggests that this White- or Wine-land may
be an oceanic island, but the fact that it is mentioned as
neighbouring Dacia may mean it was confused with
Vendland. The Polychronicon was largely borrowed from an
earlier English book, the Geographica Universalis, which
was written in the thirteenth century. In it the inhabitants
of this particular Winlandia are represented as wizards who
sell the wind to mariners. Further it is placed on the
continent of Europe on the sea-coast bordering Norway on
the east. It is therefore Finnland, particularly the province
of the Lapp wizards known as the Finnmark.

In the same way the Vinlandia mentioned in the

Lubeck manuscript of 1486-1488 and described as “an
extensive island reaching as far as Livonia ,” appears to be
this same mainland. Having said this it is still true that
the word Winland sometimes described an western oceanic
landfall, and this appears to be the case with the “fairy-
tale land” of Hvittenland mentioned in Faroes lay Finnur
hinn Frithi: In it the jarl’s son, Fionn the Fair, who has a
notable correspondence with the Gaelic Fionn mac Cumhail,
courts Ingesjörg, the daughter of an Irish king. She is as
beautiful as the sun, “the colour of her maiden cheeks as
blood dropped upon snow.” This last is exactly the
description given the crow-goddess Mhorrigan. When he asks
for her hand she insists that he first kill the three “Wine-
kings” who live in the western sea, and who are apparently
bothering the northern isles. Fionn conscripted his brother
Haldan to go an echtral and afterwards they hoisted their
silken sails setting forth on the Winland Sea. At their
destination Fionn killed Thorstein the first king who came
at him as a magical black horse, by slashing him across the
navel, a feat similar to the disembowelment of Don by the
Dagda. The second, tried a similar unsuccessful attack on
the hero, but the third shape-changed into a dragon. He
posed a much bigger problem and he shot venom from his
mouth into Fionn’s coat-of-mail.

Thinking he was near death Fionn removed his golden

arm band and gave it to Halfdan instructing him to take it
back to Ingebjörg bidding her to find some other mate. At
this Halfdan “sprang into the air and seized the third Wine-
king tearing him off at the navel.” After this he returned to
Ireland told the maiden of this unfortunate reversal and
gave her the ring as he been instructed. To recompense
Halfdan, the girl slept with him for three nights, but finding
him unequal to her prince charming, died of grief. Halfdan
erected a fortress in Ireland, but never ceased mourning the
loss of his brother.

Nansen thinks that this solitary tale is “the last echo

of the Irish mythological ideas from which the Wineland of
the Icelanders arose.” Although some of the Old Norse tales
conclude that the land was named after the grape vines
found there it must be noticed that no notice is taken of
finding grape-vines in the earliest versions of the discovery
of North America. Notice that Odin’s vines were the
witches’ brooms, the nether reaches of the white-beech
trees which were regarded as his places for rest and
contemplation, and this might be the source of the name
Vinland.

TIR MÔR, The exchange name for Tir Fionne the Norse
Hvitramannaland in the sagas was Irland hit Mikla, “Ireland
the Great.” In Ireland itself Tir-nan-Iongnadh, the “Land of
Wonders,” was often called Tir Mór, the “Great Land,”a
place stated to be “two or three times as large as Ireland.”
This name confers with Tuatha Mór, “Northern Land.” The
name relates directly with the Old Norse Tile or “Thule,”
and it is our guess that it was the home-away-from-home
for the banished Tuatha daoine, the fay-people of Ireland.
Notice that iongnadh, “wonder,” is based on in-gnàth, “not
customary,” “not traditional,””not usual,” “not a known
entity,” a weird place. Among its unusual features was the
Trág Mór , which Nansen equates with the “Great Strands”
seen by the Norsemen when they came to North America.
This is a mistranslation of the Gaelic as tràigh is any
shore and not a sand beach. The ultimate root for the word
is troigh, to “draw down,” and it resembles traogh, to
“ebb,” and trai, the “ebb-tide, hence traeth, a shore at ebb
tide. This is, therefore, a name descriptive of a place where
there were great expanses of shore exposed at the ebb-tide.

In North America only one place deserves this name

and that is the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tidal
ranges in the world. By implication Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick may represent “Ireland the Great,” or the “White
man’s Land.” There is a seemingly inconsistent passage in
the Sturlubôk where Wineland and Ireland are both alluded
to: There, Wineland seems to be called Irland et Goda ,
“Ireland of the Gods,” or less closely “Ireland the Good.”

This is strange since the mention follows reference to

Irland et Mikla. It will be remembered that Vinland is
mentioned elsewhere as being close by “Ireland the Great,”
which makes Ireland of the Gods confer with Vinland. This
is generally supposed to be a doubling up of a single name
due to a copyist’s error, but this is a very rare error and
Nansen says “Nothing of the same sort occurs in the
transmission of other geographical names.” He suspects
that Ireland of the Gods represents the original form for
Vinland, and says there may have been two places in the
west peopled by the Irish. In any instance he thinks that et
goda or hit gótha has a foreign ring in combination with
Norse names. He notes that this combination only appears in
three other northern place name, “Landegode,” which was
originally “Landit Gotha.” One is a landfall located on an
island west of Bodö on the coast of Norway, Peter Clausen
has said that this name was a substitution for Jomfruland,
a tabooed designation which fishermen would not use when
passing this place. The hidden name has reference to a
“Jonah’s wife,” a person possessed by demons and driven to
consistent bad luck. This “Land of the Gods,” or “Land of the
good-folk” is “a common superstition among sailors and
fishermen that various things were not to be called by their
usual names while they were at sea, presumably a relic of
heathen belief in evil spirits, whose power it was hoped to
avoid by not calling their attention by mentioning
themselves or objects with which their evil designs were
connected. It was rather hoped to be able to conciliate them
by using flattering words instead of the proper ones. The
three islands in point were all so situated in the fairway
that they must have been unusually dangerous for coasting
traffic in former times.” Other mythologists have suggested
that the case is simpler and that Landegod in Sumnmör is
called the “good land,” for being the first decent landfall in
treacherous waters.

If Irland et Goda disguises a tabooed place, this is not

without precedent for fairylands are universally referred to
in English as the “Good Lands.” and in the Scandinavian
countries Landit Gotha was understood to be possessed by
the huldrefolk , or “cow-people,” the liosalfar of Sweden.
Nansen has suggested that their lands were indeed “good”
places since they were exceedingly fertile meadow-lands.
The Germanic people, in general, whistle in the dark when
they compliment the elfs as “good-fellows” or “god-
fellows.” In Nordlands, the huldrefolk are in fact called the
godvetter, i.e the “good wights.” Among the Lapps these are
the güvitter , a name reserved for supernatural humanoids
living underground or in the sea. The northern Swedes
sometimes speak of the goveiter. The Old Norse mound elf
or haugbui (mound-bound one) is called in Nordland
godbonden. The Icelandic underground folk are ljúflinger, the
German equivalent is the guten Leute .
 In English speaking places, they are “the good folk,”
“the good neighbours,” or “the good people.” These answer
to Daoine magh , the “great people,” in Gaelic places and to
dynion mad in the Welsh countryside. In Sweden and
Denmark we also see house-spirits entitled nisse god dreng,
the “niss good-boy,” or goda-nisse. In Norway the creature
is go-granne , the “god neighbour.” In Danish there is also
kære granne the “dear neighbour,” and in German guter
nachbar or gutgesell for a goblin. In Thuringia the correct
parlance is gütchen or gütel and in England he is the
goodfellow, sometimes personalized as Robin Goodfellow or
Robin Hood. The epithet “good” or god-like” was of course
applied to the human dead as well as to supernatural beings
in the hopes that these spirits would interfere in the lives
of men. Nicknames were thought preferable to the hidden
names of such spirits, since the naming of names was
thought to case these creatures to become incarnate. Fear
was the impetus for these pet names, the same principle as
that used when the Swedes refer to thunder as gobon or
godbonden rather than mention Torr , the name of the god
thought responsible for generating the phenomenon. This
similie is like the Gaelic gobhal, “forked.” Hit Gotha has the
connotation of godlike, “the altogether good,” “perfect in
every respect.”

Here it must be remembered that most of the elfs,

fairies and Daoine sidh abandoned Europe as it became clear
that Christianity was not a passing fancy with the human
population. It is also necessary to remember that the “side-
hill people,” were sometimes identified as the aes side or
oes side , the “wise side-hill-dwellers” because of their
skills as craftsmen and magicians. The Milesians who
banished them remained aware of their superiority in the
healing arts and their gods were incorporated into the pagan
theology of the sons of Mil without question. When the
Romans discovered the religions of Britain they carried
them back to Rome and there the Tuathan “gods” were
absorbed as the dei terreni or “gods of the earth. Note that
the Latin terra confers exactly with the Gaelic tir and with
tuath , “a northern people,” people found to the “left” in the
Atlantic Ocean. These words are similar to the Latin toto,
the “state, “ as well as to Teutonic , Deutsch and Dutch.

Notice, as well, that the Atlantic southwest of Ireland

was called the “Green Ocean,”in medieval times, while
waters to the northwest were known as the Oceanus
Deucalidonius , the “Ocean of the Caledonian gods,” who
were, of course, the Daoine sidh, at first known as the
Tuatha daoine, their leaders being the reincarnate mortal-
gods of the earth. This takes us full circle to the Irland hit
gotha and the sister place which is called Vinland hit
gotha, “Wineland the Good,” in some of the texts. Since the
combination of hit gotha with a proper name is not seen in
Scandinavia, Nansen thinks it was used to set aside any
“fairyland” in the western ocean.

TIR N’ IONGNADH, the “Land of Wonder.” North America?

TIR MUCCE, the Land of Pigs, from Manann mac Ler’s magical
“pigs of the sea.” muc, a pig, mucce, pigs, Cy. moch, pigs,
Lat. muc, mucus, phlegm, also the G. mug, cloudiness, gloom,
surliness, allied with Eng. mug, pug, bog, buck and pig and
with muggy and muddy. The Roman historian Tacitus, who
lived in the first century A.D., produced a map showing the
nations of northwestern Europe, and on it the Ocean of the
Caledons is called Mare Pigrum, the portion between the
Orkneys and Thule being given as Apertum Mare, the “Open
Sea.” Pigrum is the Latin superlative of piger, “slow,
reluctant, lazy, indolent, inactive, dull, sluggish, inactive,
unfruitful,” all modifiers which apply to the arctic waters.
But the word may have been intended for its connotations:
hence the related pigneror, an (evil) omen, “to take a
pledge.” Those who were pledged or mortgaged to evil men
(or gods) were termed the pigneratori (the pigs of Tor), and
it will be recalled that the Tuatha daoine were indebted to
the sea-gods for their lands in the west and were in fact
referred to as Aitchech tuatha, the “Rent-payers,” and
sometimes as the “Rent-payers to Cromm, “ the Gaelic
death-god. We also have the Latin piget, “it disgusts, it
displeases, it grieves, it pains one (to see such servitude).”
 The Tuatha daoine pledged themselves before the sea-
god, Manann mac Ler, and it will be remembered that they
got invisibility, homes, and virtual immortality for their
part of the mortgage. The latter was made possible at
yearly festivals where the fay people took part in “Feasts
of Immortality,” at which they drank the wine and consumed
the flesh of the pigs of the sea, creatures that were
immediately reincarnate on the following day. It is obvious
that these creatures represented the spirit of the ocean,
and may be thought of as a god-sacrifice. In Gaelic the pig
is referred to obliquely as a muc , the English “mucker”
from its habit of drooling “mucus,” but in earlier times it
may have been identified using the more general name bòc,
one having “swelled cheeks.”

This is the English “buck” a word now applied to the

male of any kind of deer, goat, hare or antelope. Bòc and
muc may be dialectic forms of the same word, and the
former is the source of the Gaelic bòcan, “generated by a
buck,” a hobgoblin or sith. This is also the origin of boc-sith
, an apparition or ghost. There are all kinds of associated
words, as: bochd, poor; bodach, a male member of the
Daoine sidh and boabh, a female of this species. Thus, you
are what you eat! Note also the connected Welsh, bwg and
the Cornish bucca, which are the English bug, pug, bugbear,
bogie, boggle or boogey-man. These are all allied with the
Gaelic pucca, the Norse pukka, the English hobgoblin who is
called a “puck.” Puck can be shown to confer with the god
Lokki. and he is derived from the Gaelic Lugh (or the
reverse).

Thus, the sun-god Lugh is the ultimate source of

sustenance for the Daoine sidh. While he is the lord of life,
his dark side is seen in Cromm an’ Cam , “Cromm the
Crooked,” the lord of death, and god of the night. The pig
was the totem of all the Firbolg people of Ireland, and when
the Milesians invaded they referred to that place as “the
sow-backed country,” a pointed reference to the continued
existence and power of the Firbolgs. The Tuathan god Manann
mac Ler had constant problems with “wild pigs” and their
place at his annual banquets may point to their final
submission to him. Pigs seem to be unconnected with the
concept of lands of the gods, but the Middle English pigge is
the Danish bigge, a “swine.”

Sir Thomas Palgrave notes a host of related words:

the Anglo-Saxon pœcan, to seduce or deceive; the Low Saxon
picken, to play in the fields, to gambol; pickeln, to play the
fool; pukra, the Icelandic for a murmuring noise, also to
steal away in secret; pukka, the Danish verb to steal. He
further adds that the Swedish poika, is an “endearing” term
for a “boy,” and says that the Anglo-Saxon and Swedish
piga, and the Danish pige stand for “girl.” Thomas Keightley
is sure that these words all connect with the Slavonic bog,
which is another form of the English word “god.” Notice, as
well, that the Gaelic and Gael, the name of the language and
people of the highlands of Scotland, both confer with the
English “good,” the German gut, and other expressions of
“goodness” or “god-hood” mentioned above. The Welsh for
an Irishman is Gwyddel and it compares with the Gaulish
Geidumni which is very likely the Latin hoedus, a goat; thus,
“goat-men,”” good-men,” or “god-men.” The Gaelic root-
word appears to be ghadh from which their word gabhar and
gabhlan, a wandering man, one devoid of care.

Thus, the prohibition against seamen speaking the

word “pig” at sea. Doing this draws the undesirable
attentions of a god known for his warped senses of humour.
As we have seen, “pig” once had the force of an oath
against “god,” and saying the word suggested that one might
be ready to take an oath of allegiance to these old sea-gods.
Hy na-Beatha, the “Land of (Eternal) Life;” Trág Mór, the
“Great Ebb-tide (Place),” the “Great Strand;” Tir nIongnadh ,
the “Land of Wonder;” and Tir fo-Tonn, the “land Under
Waves.”

TIR-NA-M-BAN, usually given as the Land of “Females” or

“Women,” but equally valid as bàn, in which case, the Land
of “Whites.” or Whiteness. Hence, a cloudy place. The root
bhâ, to shine, Skr. bhânù, light, The Eng. bale, as in bale-fire.
A mythic Atlantic Island, later represented as the Island of
Virgins; first noted in the seventh century Echtra Brain
maic Febail. This was a place where thousands of amorous
women were assembled, all ladies “without care, without
death and without sickness or infirmity.” Bran and his men
lived there for some time “each living sumptuously” with a
woman of his choice. Ordinarily, these perpetual virgins
travelled to Tir -na-Fer, the “Island of Men,” to obtain sex
and reproduce their kind. In historic times there have been
tales of similar islands west of Scotland where men would
expire after a short residence.

TIR NA-M-BUADHA, BUIDHE, the Land of “Virtues,” Land of

the Yellow (Plants), buidhe, yellow, Lat. badius, Eng. bay;
hence perhaps also the Land of Embayments. Buidheachas,
gladness, thanks, “a safe place.” Note also the conferring
AS. béodan, the Eng. bidden as in for-bid. Also referred to
as Hy-na-Beatha. A mythic Atlantic “island.”

TIR NAN-INGHEAN, INGNAD, INGEN, the Land of “Daughters,”

or “Young Women,” and not necessarily “Virgins,” as some
authors suggest. The word may have something of the sense
of the Latin indigena, the Eng. indigenous, hence a place of
“native” peoples. The root is gen, to beget. Loosely
translated as the Land of “Marvels.” One of the mythic
Atlantic sea “islands.” Confers with Tir na-m ban.

TIR NAN-IONGNADH. INGNAD, TIRIB IGNAD, the Land of

Wonder, OIr. ingnád, the negative prefix ion + gnàth,
customary, usual, the root gen, to beget, to know. Not
natural, an “unkind” place. A dwelling place of the Fomors.

TIR-NAN-OG (teer nanh ock). Land of Youth. After the god

Aonghas Og who may confer with Ogma. Hy-Breas-il or an
associated island-kingdom in the Atlantic. Osygia or Ogygia
was the Grecian flood-survivor. Homer said that the island
named after him was located upon the “Boundless Sea,” and
that the place was ruled in the latter days by Calypso, the
sea-nymph who tried to detain both Odysseus and his son
Telemachus. Plutarch (d. 120 A.D.) reported this island as a
real place within the Atlantic, located five days sail due
west of Britain. The Gaelic Tir nan Og was named for
Aonghas Óg , Angus Young; also entitled mhac Óg, the
younger son (of Dagda). His “brothers” were stated to be
Ogma, the god of eloquence and Midir , the god of the
underworld. He has an extremely close correspondence with
the sun-god, Lugh, who is sometimes given as his father or
brother.

This was a land where folk drank the waters of tobar

n’og, the well of youth and thus lived healthy lives, their
persons being virtually indestructible except through
accident. It was not until the mainland of North America
was encountered in 1513, that the Legend of the Fountain of
Youth became a subject of conversation and astonishment at
the Spanish court. The peninsula of Florida is clearly
marked on the de Cosa map of 1502, but it was the
experiences of Ponce de León that eventually led to the idea
that there was very possibly a continent in the western
ocean. Earlier visitors to that general region had heard the
Indians say that there was a fountain that could restore the
dead and reverse the aging process on an island named
Bimini. Juan Dias de Solis, among others, was said to have
stumbled upon it “at a distance of 325 leagues from
Hispanola (Spain).” Writing of similar discoveries Italian
historian Peter Martyr d-Anghiera said, “those who have
explored ann island which is called Boyuca or Ananeo, have
found there a fountain which has the virtue that by drinking
its water, old men are rejuvenated.”

Somewhat later, this coast was identified with that

explored by de León. Running into the land at the place
where he thought this island might be located, the latter
explorer named the northern part of the peninsula Florida,
allegedly because he arrived at Pascua florida, or Easter
Sunday. The southern part, which he interpreted as an
island, he called Bimini, a name now applied to a different
place in the Bahamas. Ponce de León did not discourage the
rumour that there was a fountain of regeneration as he
needed all the backing he could get to get royal permission
to found a colony in Florida.

His story was upheld when Peter Martyr met a Lucayo

Indian, who attested to the fact that his elderly father had
gone to Florida and come away a new man. This Indian, the
captured by Spanish slave-raiders was taken to Spain,
learned Spanish and was baptized Andres Barbudo, a name
derived from the unusual fact that he was bearded, unlike
most southern Indians.This story was backed by other
reputable men including Vázquez de Ayllón, a high official
in the Spanish court. Most of these witnesses attested that
they had been prevented from actually seeing the spring by
the ferocity of the Indians, who had effectively beaten off
several packs of Spanish “tourists.” De Ayllón managed to
contact an Indian captured in a raid in southern Georgia.

“This man, named Chicorano is by no means stupid,”

wrote Peter Martyr,”and was able to learn Spanish with
relative ease.” Clever or not, Chicorano told a number of
“tall-tales” to anyone who would listen. His repertoire of
mythic places and peoples included a place he called Duhare
where the residents were all white-skinned and had red
hair. Their king was a giant named Datha, and their queen of
almost equal stature, had five sons, all nearly their equal in
height. Near this kingdom was Xapida, where pearls were
taken in great quantity and where more giants tended herds
of domesticated deer, which they milked, using the product
in cheese-making. He identified a third mainland kingdom
called Inzingnanin. Long ago, he said, a people had come
there by sea. This race had inflexible tails, like crocodiles.
In order to sit in comfort they constructed chairs with a
hole in the middle. A sea-people, like the Fomors, they ate
raw-fish, but because this product was lacking in their new
locale they quickly died of a deficiency disease. It was in
Duhare, however, that Chicorano said that the Spaniards
would find the fountain they sought. Here all men were of
the same age, and were continually renewed from drinking
the water. See Coire na Dagda .
TIR-NAN-SMEAR. the “Fat Land,” smeur, smiar, anoint,
smear, Ir. sméaraim, fat, grease, to smear with grease,
smeur also identifies the black-berry from its tendency to
stain; from the root smior, marrow, Cy. mer, AS. smeoru,
lard, the ON. smjörr, butter. “Butter-land.” A Norse
fairyland off the coast of Scandinavia was named
Smjörrland or alternately Flajgland, the “Flying Land,” or
Sjóhaj. a “Mirage on the Ocean.” The first name was
tendered because the place was exceptionally fertile. All
Norwegian names bearing the prefix smjörr have this
laudatory implication. “Similarly, in the place names of
Shetland we note: Smeerin (smjörr + vin, “fertile pasture);
Smernadal (valley with a fat pasture), de Smerwel-park
and de Smerr-meadow, all derived from the Old Norse
tongue; “Even in early times the word “smör” was used to
denote a fat land, as when Thorolf in the saga said, “it
dripped butter from every blade of grass in the land they
had found (in this case Iceland).” A general name visited on
mythic lands located westward in the Atlantic.

TIR NA T’SAMHRAIDH, the earth goddesses of the Brugh na

Boyne, had this place as their ultimate death-world, Tir na
t’Samharaidh, the “Land of Summer,” was a place closer Tir
nan Óg than the dreary northern nether lands usually
associated with An Domhain. The dead lands generally
included the Fomorian “winter-islands” of Dun Sgiath, the
“Fortress of Shadows,” and Hy-Falga, the “Hidden Place.”
Summer Land was, or lay close by Magh Mell, the “Plain of
Happiness,” and Tir na mBeo, the “Land of the Living.” Samh
was the goddess of the easy season, the ritual bride to the
kings of Tara, one of the Daoine sidh, who came annually out
of the Brugh na Boann to celebrate beultainn, the “Fires of
Beul.”

Her name, like that of her male associate Beul , has

gathered about it the characteristics of numerous local
deities such as the bas-finne, the “death-maidens” who the
Norse called the valkyra. Particularly allied with Samh is
the Fomorian sea-goddess known as the Mhorrigan, the
youthful form of Mebd and Macha. She is often also seen as
affiliated with Aoine and the matriarch of the Daoine sidh,
the deity called Anu or Danu, who is ultimately Domnu, the
creator-goddess equivalent of the male Don. Her over-
wintering form, the Macha was most often referred to, less
formally as the Cailleach bheurr, or “Winter Hag,” although
she was sometimes designated as Cailleach beara, the “Bear
Woman.” She was also called Bui, the “Pale Yellow One,”
goddess of the winter son, the half-year mate of the
enfeebled and white-haired Lugh, in his guise as the god of
the dead lands.

Because she controlled the winds of winter this

goddess was alternately called Fea the Hateful, from the
Gaelic ve, the verb “to blow.” Bui is obviously Búanann, also
seen as Boann or Boyne, the Mother of Heroes. In some tales.
she is spoken of as “the lady who taught martial arts and
ran a school for warriors. The name signifies ‘lasting one, ’
“ but she is more obviously Boanu or Anu, the “Cow-fire”
goddess. Also associated was Cathubodua, the “Warrior
cow-person.”

TIR-TAIRNIGRI, literally the “Land of Thor’s Daughter;” the

Land of the Dead. Tairneanach, thunder, relating directly to
the Teutonic god Thor, G. Tar or Tor. tir, land; tair, I arrive
at, come to; nigh, probably from the ON Nissa, the sea-name
for Odin. From this also the Eng. Old Nick and Ness, a sea-
serpent. In modern Gaelic nigh, to wash clean, nighean,
daughter Confers with the Latin nigri, black, and the Eng.
negro. The land of Manann mac Ler, the ferryman of the
dead, in which was located Emain Ablach, the “Place of
Mangled Carcases.” This land was said to be located at the
rim of the western ocean. Corresponds with Hy- Breas-il.

TIR-TUATH. Land of the Northerners. At various times

northern Ireland, northern Scotland and islands in the
western ocean. See tuatha and tigh.

TIR-UAINE, “ Terra, or Land (which is) Green.” T h e

designation “Greenland” has troubled historians who note
that land mass is not particularly verdant, but
climatologists have noted that the place was more
temperate when the Norse settled there. On the other hand
there is a minority opinion that the name derives from Old
Germanic models and ”comes from the inhabitants being
bluish-green in colour.”

This is interesting because of reports suggesting that

some of the Daoine sidh were of exactly this complexion.
Nansen has said that “the Skraelings (natives) of Greenland
are called troll or trollknour in the Icelandic narratives.”
These are the trows of northern Scotland, corresponding in
most details with the sithe. Professor Torp, a consultant to
Nansen noticed that the trolls, like the black elfs, were
spoken of as svart , or “black” in complexion and character.
But the word svart really implies something which is “blue-
black,” and this is “an uncanny colour, a common Germanic
trait; cf. Rolf Blue-beard (an infamous murderer and
magician).” Here again the blue means green.

In the mid-sixteenth century, Green Island

(sometimes entitled Grass Island) started to appear on
charts and maps. Several historians suggest that the
designation is interchangeable with Hy Breasil, in which
case it may confer ultimately with present-day Cape Breton
Island or mainland Nova Scotia. On the Gestaldi map of 1548
it is represented as ye verdi and is positioned due south of
or bellandi and the Labrador coast, somewhat west of a
scattering of islands which seem to represent a fragmented
Newfoundland. In 1564 we see it as y da grasa and this
time it is southwest of Newfoundland on the Grand Banks.
Eleven years later, Zalterrius has it as verde and has
tucked it into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence between
Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island. By the following
century this mythological island was a non-entity.

There is evidence that Greenland proper had a Celtic

past. In the summer of 981 Erik went to Greenland “to see it
there was any habitable place.” Erik’s landfall is given as
Midjokul . “middle Glacier,” suggesting preconceived Norse
knowledge of the coast. Some authors have said that he
searched the east coasts, others the west. Mowat says there
is no chance that he would have found any thing of the sort
on the “inhospitable eastern coast.” We pass this question
for the moment, but note that the Olaus Magnus map of 1557
shows a monastic community far up the eastern coast. In
any event, Erik cruised southward until he came to Hvitserk,
or “Whiteshirt,” presumably the southern glacier.
Somewhere nearby, apparently around the western corner
from the most southern extremity, he located and settled
Eriksfjord.

During the 1920’s Scandinavian archaeologists

excavated one of his supposed buildings at Brattalid, “the
earliest house known in Greenland.” This place is not at
the site of the multi-roomed ruins ascribed to Erik’s tribe,
and it has some features that are not characteristically
Norse. The entryway is that side,forming a typically Gaelic
“half-house.” The hearth is centred in line with the door,
rather than in the central location preferred by Norse
builders. The ratio of length to width and the very thick
stone walls are more Irish or Scottish than Norse, There
was a system for conveying running water, which involved
a subterranean conduit from an outside spring, an interior
holding basin and a drainage ditch leading out through the
doorway. Excavations of another local ruin show Norse
additions to a much older core-home which archaeologists
date from the turn of tenth century. Again, this place is
narrow like Irish homes of the period and the house walls
are a full six feet in width. It also has internal “plumbing.”
The rune-sticks recovered here show that there were Norse
tenants, but no stratification was established at this site
and none of the other relics are exclusively Norse in design
or function. Mowat has suggested that thick walls had a
protective function, and thinks they originally housed the
Celtic Westmen who logically feared the Norse settlers who
were nipping at their heels. It is said that there are church
documents suggesting a Celtic Christian missionary
presence in Greenland.

Lewis the Pious, the Pope of the day, is said to have

taken a special interest in the work of two Benedictines
named Witmar and Ansgar. They had been preaching their
Gospel in the north prior to 831 A.D. and apparently did a
bang-up job for Ansgar was appointed archbishop of all the
northern countries. The appointment edict gave him care and
control of “Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Faeroes,
Cronland, Helsingoland, Island and Scritfinnland.” Island is
“Iceland” and Cronland, “Greenland,” so it can only be
assumed that there was some European presence in both
places at this date, long before Norse interests developed in
these places. It was 846 by the time Ansgar had a papal
bull in hand. In 858 Pope Nicholas renewed his charge and
over the following sixty years four other decrees confirmed
the authority of his successors as archbishop of the north.
Over the years the spelling Cronland evolved through
Gronland to Groenland or “Greenland.”

As noted earlier, Cronland seems to confer with the

Greek Cronusland and the Cronian Sea mentioned by
classical writers. It is also noteworthy that Pope Nicholas
(1448) refers to Greenland as a country of Christians “for
six centuries past.” This would place the conversion of
that land two hundred years before Norse settlement.
Nicholas also credited the evangelization of Greenland to St.
Olaf, who was born at the millennium. Nordic scholars
ppicked on this as proof that Nicholas either erred in
speaking of the date of the establishment of Christianity, or
thought that the Nordic element must have been present two
centuries before it was generally supposed.

The more logical supposition is that Nicholas wished

to remember this Nordic Christian saint rather than the now
defunct Celtic missionaries, whose occupation of Greenland
was extremely tenuous. By the middle of the tenth century
the viking “dogs” were no longer biting, and it is guessed
that many Celtic clerics went back to Ireland or Scotland on
the trading ships which must have occasionally run between
western and eastern ports.

There may have been a Celtic presence in Greenland as

late as the fourteenth century, if we can believe the Zeno
narratives: It is said that Nicolo Zeno, living in Iceland or
Shetland, heard of Engroneland, “The Green Land,” from
fishermen and sailed there in 1393 or 1394. His three small
barks set sail in July and on the east coast he found a
monastery of “Friar Preachers.” and a church which he said
was dedicated to Saint Thomas. It stood “hard by a hill
which vomited fire after the fashion of Versuvius or Etna.”

TITHINN, obs. the sun, tit, the earth; ann, living.

TIU, TIUGH, thick rather than slender, frequent, coarse,

corpulent, hazy, foggy. Possibly a characterization of the
god Hu, the Tiu of Tues-day. Also a foggy land. See the
above. Corresponds with tir, land.

TLACHTGA. A goddess, the daughter of the druid named Mug

Ruith, a resident of West Munster. She was raped by the
sons of Simon Magus and gave birth to triplets from the
seeds of three different fathers. She died in childbirth but
left her name on the Hill of Tlachtga. The hill, now known as
the Hill of Ward, is located near Athboy, County Meath,
twelve miles from Tara, and was particularly associated
with Samhain rites.

TO. TOE, “As a river name it was doubtless primarily the

name of a goddess.” (Watson, p. 51). It means silence,
stillness, earlier “The Silent One.” Converted into Tatha in
modern Gaelic. Eng. Tay. The Amra Coluim Cille mentions
the Tuatha Toi, or “People of Tay” saying that they lived
near a river of this name in Alba. In another place mention
is made of a high-king with this name, a personage defeated
by the Romans. A Latin tract of the twelfth century gives
the sppelling as Tae (nominative case). Cy. Tawy. At least
one saiint of the Christian church bore the adjecvtive tua,
“the silent one.”

TOBAN, cowl, hood, wreath. The dress of the fay-folk.

TOBAR, well. From the roots To, see above and , bhurr or
bhur, to well up, to boil, to seethe, the Skr. bhur, to move
quickly. Associated is tibirt, a fountain. In Celtic societies,
the mortal god-king, and his queen, were seen as the
“fountain” and the “well” of regenerative spirit, thus their
place at the centre of the community, within a holy circle
which conferred with “The Cauldron of the Dagda.”

Mrs Macleod Banks says that “wells, springs streams

and pools have all been accredited with healing powers
wherever man has had ailments to cure and Scotland with
its numerous mountains and glens was famed for healing
waters. Long before the Christian era, springs endowed with
magical virtues were regarded as bringers of health from
the heart of the earth, or as forces able to work destruction
in overflow and flood; both hope and dread urged the
adoption of ceremonial visiting rites.” Thus the Gaelic
notion of wells as doors to the Otherworld and the habit of
visitations to them at the Quarter Days.

Even at present it is said that there are up to 600

known “holy wells” in Scotland alone, and they are certainly
not unknown in the rest of Britain and North America. In
earlier times each well was considered a local deity, or
nature spirit, which could incarnate itself as a guardian.
Sometimes the genius of the well was seen as being
resident in animal form. The Well of Kilbride contained a
single trout and it was treated with extreme respect. At the
Well of Kilmore, in Lorne, there were a pair of iasg sianta,
holy fish that were left undisturbed. Most of the well
spirits were thought beneficent but some were baneful in
spite of attempted exorcisms by druids.

In the sixth century the Picts were glad to have St.

Columba work his magic against one of their more fearful
spirits, for they noted that even touching this water
created illness. Columba after an invocation washed his
hands and feet in the well and drank the water, showing
that the demon of the well had passed on. The well at
Yelaburn, in the Shetlands, was said to be that of a Water
Trow (Troll) a species of very quixotic temperament.
 The reconsecration of pagan wells to Christianity is a
matter of record: On the Isle of Eigg there is now Saint
Catherine’s Well which was rededicated by Father Hugh, “a
Popish priest.” In that process, the priest demanded that all
the local residents of the community gather at the well. He
then required them to create a great cairn at the head of the
well by way of penance for their past use of heathen
powers. This done, he said a mass at the well, and
consecrated it to Christ. He gave each person present a
waxed candle, which they lighted and carried “all the way
sun-ways, round the well.” From that time it was
considered unlawful to use the water of this well for
anything other than the curing of injuries. “The natives
observe St. Catherine’s Anniversary: all come to the well,
drink of it, and pass dessil round it sunwise; this always on
the 15th day of April.”

The potency of wells was considered strongest at the

Quarter Days, but they were not often visited in the winter
months due to cold weather. By tradition some of the wells
were visited on the first day of the Quarter Week,
elsewhere it was on the first Sunday, which was dedicated
to the sun-god Lugh or on Monday which was the day of the
moon-goddess Samh. In many places the pilgrimages to
wells became commercially important and were attached to
“holy fair.” It was considered good form to arrive at the
well after dusk and before dawn since wells were
considered the province of the Samh: “Above all the
suppliant had to perform the ceremonies in strict silence
and in the absence of the sun - indeed the pilgrim was
careful to be out of sight of the well before sunrise.” Some
of those who came to well rites were perfectly healthy and
bent on revelry, the fair being a good excuse for
entertainments that ranged from simple greetings through
badinage and gossip to drinking, fornication and
prostitution.

These “relics of the old nature festivals” were not

appreciated by clerics of the Christian Church but were hard
to eradicate. The rites performed by those who sought
health or good fortune are well known, having persisted in a
few places to the present time: The pilgrim first walked
three times around the well (sunwise in Christian versions
of reality). He then “silvered” the water by throwing in a
few silver coins to draw the attention of the water-spirit.
In later days a bent coin did duty. Drinking the water, the
suppliant made his wish. Before his departure he pinned his
attendant evil spirits to a tree or some other associated
relic, catching in up in a bit of his own used clothing. By
this act he passed the evil forces into the cloth and anyone
who stole or removed these rags automatically acquired the
troubles of the original owner. The wells are often
associated with particular antique trees or standing stones.
At Loch Shiant in Skye the well spirit is though partially
resident in a coppice rather than a tree, and no one will
venture to cut a branch from it for fear of “some signal
judgement.”

In Easter Ross, one well is known as the Well of the

Yew, but that tree is long gone from the place. The Healing
Well on Isle Maree has as its tree a venerable oak, which is
itself labelled the Wishing Tree. Before landing on the Isle
of Maree, where the tree and the well are located, the boat
bearing pilgrims encircles the island three times. At each
round the patient (with safety rope attached) is thrown into
the Loch and retrieved. After he drinks the healing water
from the well the sufferer leaves his ills behind by placing
some “offering” on the tree, either a rag nailed to it or a
coin driven edgeways into bark. The decoration of a nearby
tree with clouts , or rags, explains why so many are known
as the “Cloutie Wells.”

Within Gaeldom there are many Tobar Mhoirean or

wells dedicated to St. Mary, and these hold special appeal
for those having “female complaints” or troubles due to
childbirth or barrenness. Since Saint Mary’s Day (August 15)
nearly coincides with the old Quarter Day known as the
Lugnasad pilgrimages were made in that month. John R.
Allen claimed to have spied on women and their rites: “The
auld wife gave them the sign to step around her and away
they went, one after another, wi’ the sun, round the spring,
each holding up her coats like she was holding herself to the
sun. As each came anent her, the auld wife took up the
water in her hands and threw it on their wames (wombs).
Never one cried out at the cold o’ the water...Three times
round they went. The old wife made a sign at them and they
dropped their coats to their feet...so that their paps
(breasts) sprang out...They doiun on their knees before her,
across the spring, she took up water in her hands, skripit on
their paps, three times the three. Then the auld wife rose
and the three barren women rose. They put on their claes
and drew their shawls and left the hollow without a word
spoken.” Soon afterwards all became pregnant.

Similarly, there are a few wells which were said to

be useful against leprosy. One in the Border Country is
specifically named the Leper’s Well, and it lies in dark
woods near Earlston. The spring near Ayr is said to have
cured Robert Bruce of this disease. Very few wells bear
their old pagan names but the goddess Bridd continues to
exist in Saint Bride and there are a number of wells bearing
this name especially in the region between Wigton and
Aberdeen on the western coast of Scotland. St. Bride’s Well
at Piltlorchy was a famous retreat for consumptives.

The various Wells dedicated to Nine Maidens have

obvious connections with this goddess. In pre-Reformation
times it was common to “dress” these female wells. On St.
Margaret’s Day (July 20) the well at Dunfermline, was
decorated with greenery and flowers, and in the Christian
era a procession of monks and nuns visited the well,
entertaining it with praise and song. Other wells were done
up on the saint’s days and visited by hundreds of people
seeking help for their ills.

Many of the wells were considered to have

precognitive as well as healing powers. The Dripping Well at
Avoch, in Ross, was sought to counter deafness: “Whosoever
drink of these waters shall be placing two straws of wood
on the surface, ascertain whether he shall recover or no. If
he recover the straws will rotate in opposite directions,
but if he is to die soon, will lie motionless in the water.”
St. Andrew’s Well, in Lewis, is consulted less directly; “A
tub full of water is brought from the well to the patient’s
room, care being taken not to let it touch the ground on the
way. A wooden bowl is set afloat in it. If the bowl moves
sun-ways, the omen is favourable...” The Well of Beothaig,
the “Living Reaper,”on the Isle of Gigha, off Kintyre, was
alone in commanding the winds. It was built up on all sides
with stones, and when a fair wind was needed mariners
went there and cleaned the well with a wooden bowl or a
clamshell. Water from the well was thrown, three -by-three
times, in the direction from which it was desired the wind
should blow. “

It was customary,” says one contemporary, “for great

numbers of persons to go on a pilgrimage, bare-footed, to
Christie’s Well in Menteith and there perform certain
superstitious ceremonies to the great offense of God and
scandal of the true religion.” The position of the common-
folk was represented by Jock Forsyth, who addressing God,
said, “”O Lord, Thou knowest that well it would be for me
this day an I had stooped my knees and heart before Thee in
spirit and truth as often as I hae stoopit them afore this
well.” Nevertheless he continued the pagan process affixing
an offering to a nearby briar bush as was the tradition. In
May 1624 the Privy Council went after his kind appointing a
number of gentlemen in each district to stand near the
wells to “apprehend all such superstitious persons and put
them in the castle of Doune.” Notwithstanding, the rites
continued until 1649 when the kirk sessions interfered with
these “holywell annuals.”

TOBAR CHALUIM CHILLE, “Saint Columba’s Well,” near Loch

Saint Clair on the island of Barra. It is said that Columba
placed a spell on this well. Fishermen refer to this as St.
Clair’s Well, and at one time they used to drink from it on
Sundays supposing that the amount they consumed would
relate to the size of their herring catches in the coming
week. In pre-Reformation days people of this islands
travelling to the only Christian church at Eoligarry hedged
their bets by taking drinks of water from this well.

TOBAR CLÙD, “Cloutie’s Well, the “Well of Old Rags,”

Munlochy, Scotland. Also known as St. Boniface’s Well. Sick
people visiting this well look for a cure by leaving behind a
rag from one of their older garments. The rag is rubbed on
the afflicted part before being hung on a bush near the well.
As the rag decays it is believed that the spirit of disease
crumbles. Anyone destroying a rag or removing one takes up
the donor’s illness. It is estimated that there are currently
fifty thousand rags at this site.

TOBAR BHAN, the “White Well, flowing into a burn at Glen

Elg, Scotland. A healing well which once contained a sacred
trout. Nearby the water-cress and a plant locally termed
“the flower of the three mountains” was gathered for
medicinal uses. Another well bearing this name is found at
Bernera, in Glen Elg. An elderly woman named Anne MacRae
was for a time responsible for cleaning this well. She also
sprinkled the approaches with gravel “to keep it pure.” The
sacred trout contained here disappeared at the death of this
custodian.

TOBAR BRIGHDE, Brigit’s Well, near Moore, Ireland. “Where

the multitudes assembled to celebrate what they termed
patterns... when I pressed a very old man to state what
possible advantage he expected to derive from the singular
custom of frequenting in particular such wells as were
contiguous to an old blasted oak, or an upright ubnhewn
stone, and what the meaning was of sticking rags on the
branches of such trees, and the spitting on them - his
answer was that his ancestors did it - and that it was
preservative against Geasa-Draoidacht, i.e. The sorceries of
the Druids, that their cattle were preserved by it from
infections and disorders; that the daoine maethe, i.e. The
fairies, were kept in good humour by it; and so thoroughly
persuaded were they of the sanctity of those pagan
peactises, that they would travel bare-headed and bare-
footed, from ten to twenty miles, for the purpose of
crawling on their hands and knees round these wells, and
upright stones, and oaktrees...” (Philip Dixon Hardy, The Holy
Wells of Ireland, 1840, p. 100).

TOBAR MOR, The “Great Well,” located on the Isle of Gigha

in the Western Highlands. The MacNeil pirates used to put in
there when wind-bound, and there they stirred the water
with a stick in order to raise the wind so that they could go
on their way. The well was covered with a flat stone and
this was always carefully replaced from a fear that the
land might be inundated. The captains of foreign vessels
made no direct use of the well, but used to pay locals to
consult the guardian of the well making a request for wind
or calm as it suited them. All strangers passing the well
were expected to leave a coin or a pin as oblation to the
spirits of the well.

TOBAR NA BREAC, “Well of the Trout.” In the south of Skye.

It contained a solitary trout sometimes accidentally
removed in a bucketful of water, but always replaced with
extreme care.

TOBAR NAM BUAIDH, the “Well of Virtues.” located on the

island of St. Kilda. Earlier it was known as Tou-bir-
nimbuey. St. Martin wrote of this as a place of “excellent
fountains and springs.” In 1746 Rev. Kenneth MacAuley noted
that “the water here was a sovereign cure for a great
variety of distempers, deafness particularly, and every
nervous disease.” On an altar, not far off, visitors left
offerings.

TOBAR NA CATHE, the “Well of Battles.” near Kilbar, at the

north of Barra, Scotland. An ancient writer has said that
there was a spring associated with it and noted that one
local insisted that it predicted the coming of war at which
time “certaine drops of blood hath oftymes bein sein in it.”
Rory MacNeil, the chief of that region, added that
appearance of”little bitts of Peitts” in the water indicated
the coming of peace.
TOBAR NA CHINN, the “Well of the Head,” located in that
part of Skye known as Strath. Here Lauchlan MacKinnon
avenged himself on Donald Mor, beheading him and washing
the head in this well. See each-ursainn.

TOBAR NA CILLE, “Well of the Church,” alternately called

Saint Brendon’s Well. On the mainland near St. Kilda’s. If the
winds for reaching the island wells, people who were ill
selected this as their alternative. Men putting out to sea
came here regularly to stand astride it for a few seconds,
and thus ensure safe return to the land.

TOBAR NAN FION, the “Well of Wine,” among trees at the

parish church of Glen Elg. It has a three-corner
configuration, now said to honour the Holy Trinity.

TOBAR NAN GAM, Gam’s Well, beneath Sliab Gam, Ireland. A

young man named Gam was decapitated and his head thrown
into the local well. At this desecration, the waters reacted
magically, running sweet for half the year but having a
taste of death in the other part. This phenomena was
regarded as one of the wonders of Old Ireland.

TOBAR NAN CEANN, Well of the Heads. In 1660 seven men

were beheaded for murder and their heads washed in this
spring near Invergarry, Scotland. Following this event, this
well was named, and in 1812 a distinctive monument and
fountain was erected featuring the seven severed heads.
There is another “Well of the Heads” on the island of
Vatersay, near Barra in the Outer Hebrides. Here three
brothers were murdered and their heads thrown into the
water. The father of the men removed the heads from the
well and carried them home for burial. On the journey one of
the heads, upon passing a standing stone, spoke to his father
explaining that he had recently fathered a child who would
exact revenge. This accomplished, the fourteen year-old
threw the head of the murderer into another well causing it
to be renamed Tobar a’ Chinn, the “Well of the Head.” Notice
that the ancient Celts placed severed heads upon standing-
stones, when they wished to communicate with it. In this
place severed heads were observed to sing and talk and even
move about. Some will recall that the demented Suibhne
was actually pursued by five bristling grey heads which
came down the road after him.

A monument, inscribed in Gaelic, commemorates this

unusual happening: Erected at Loch Oich, the Gaelic pillar is
surmounted by seven “tetes coupees.” Seven wells on Skye
have names of heads associated with them and a story to
match. One of these located in the moorland known as Druim
Ghiurain was the site of the murder of a young girl who had
money hidden in her hair. She was robbed and murdered by
MacRaing, a celebrated brigand. When MacRaing’s son
attempted to denounce him, the father cut off his own son’s
head and threw it into one of these wells creating a local
haunt. Notice that one of the Irish wells is called Tobar nan
Ceann, and this last word has special reference to a head
severed in battle. The cult wells have, surprisingly, given
way to legends and pseudo-history, stories used by the
locals to explain supernormal incidents which are not
otherwise comprehensible. “This aspect of the Celtic cult
of the head, allied with the veneration of wells and springs,
is one of the most convincing features of native cults,
where an unbroken continuity can be adequately
demonstrated.” - Anne Ross.

TOBAR NA H’OIGE, the “Well of Youth,” located on the Isle of

Iona. The American equivalent was Le Grand Source, which
used to be located near Charlottetown, Prince Edward
Island. A second well of this name was located on the
slopes on Connchair, Scotland. An aged St. KIldan supposedly
found this well and drinking it found his energies restored.
As he was carrying a sheep on his shoulders, he staked it at
the place as a marker, and hurried to the village to tell
others of his find. A crowd of villagers came back with him,
but neither sheep or well was located and this well is now
entitled the “Lost Well of Youth.” It is noted that this
unfortunate happening could have been avoided had the
discoverer had the foresight to leave a bit of iron by the
well: “The Little Folk would have been unable to reclaim the
well that had the power of restoring youth and vigour (in
this instance).”

TOBAR TIPTRA SEN-GARMAN, A woman named Sen-Garman

was killed at this place in Ireland. Her body was thrown into
the water and her head erected on a post in approved Gaelic
fashion. This head was intended to have a magical as well
as a psychological effect on her clansmen. The magical
effect of a severed head in a well is illustrated by an
example from the Dindshenchas: In a fight between opposing
Irishmen three heads were removed and thrown into a well.
A man named Riach was the only survivor among the
military and realizing that the well now contained an evil
spirit he sought to contain it by building a wooden structure
over it. In spite of his efforts, the well boiled up in fury and
overflowed drowning a thousand dwellers in the nearby glen.
Note also Loch Cend.

TOCMARC, wooing. A class of prime-tale.

TOGAIRT, the act of directed desire, often thought to end

with wish fulfillment to the disadvantage of the wisher.

TOICHE, Fate, destiny, obs. wall-eyed.

TOINEAL, in a trance.

TOINNEAMH, toinn, to twist, twine, spinn, wreathe, plait +

neamh, the skies, heaven, the abode of all bliss. In the past,
Death. The befinde or Fates were known to weave their
“cloth” as clouds in the sky. Toinnte, thread of yarn,
possession of one’s faculties; toinnteau, a filament or long
thread developed through spinning. These magical arts were
those of the boabhe.

TOIRM, a noise, after Thor, the ON. god of thunder. Toirn, a

great noise, toirt, giving.

TOIRCHOIS, conception, increase, plenty, foetus. Toir,

pusuit, pursued, pursuers, persecution, help, enough. Confers
with the Norse god Thor. Confers with toireann, thunder,
toireannach, impetuous, boisterous, toireis, anxiety,
toirmrich, noise of thunder or of a marching army,
toirneamh, punishment, toirteachd, fruitful.

TOISEACCH, a beginning, a chieftain, Ir., a captain, a leader,

from OIr., “I lead.” Toisg, an occasion, a state visit,
journey, business.

TOISGEAL, the left, unlucky, also a reward given for finding

a lost object.

TOLA, a dining table in the Land under Waves.

TOLL, a hole, Bry. toull, the root being the Celtic tuk, to
pierce or punch, hence that which is holed with tools. All
openings were considered passageways to the Otherworld.
Confers with Hel, the Norse goddess of the Underworld.

TOLL DRAGON, Dragon Hole. A hole on the “front” of Kinnoul

hill, which stands above the Tay at Perth, Scotland. This
hole, now about ten feet deep, was said to have been much
larger in times past, but is still capable of holding a dozen
people. Of extremely difficult access it was the site of
Beltane rites until the end of the seventeenth century.

TOLL-DUIN, a man living in a toll or tolg, a hole or hollow,

in the earth cf. the goddess Hel. Collectively the Daoine
sidh. See this entry for the linguistic connections. These are
the ON. huldufólk, hul + dul + folk, the “hole + mystery +
folk.” They were led by the hulidsverur or “elemental
beings.” They were said to resemble men, “being of the
same size, eating the same foods, enjoying fishing and berry
picking, and raising cattle or sheep like their visible
neighbours. Considerate farmers have been known to leave
fields intact because huldufólk also needed hay for invisible
livestock. Skilled midwives have been called upon to help
deliver huldufólk babies some of whom have only one
nostril. When interviewed a few years ago, only 10% of
Icelanders thought that the existence of these folk was an
impossibility and 55% insisted they were a fact of life. Five
percent admitted seeing these mound-dwellers. Folklore
collector Jón Aranson has quoted these “hole-dwellers” in
their denial that they are alfar, or “elves.”

TOLL-SITH, the "elf-bore" of lowland Scotland, any small

opening in wood through which one may peer to see the
world of the Daoine sidh. Not a recommended practise since
observers have seen things better left undisclosed. Men
have been blinded by "elf-arrows" shot out through these
holes from Never-Land.

TOLL TUINDE. “Hole in the Wave.” Forty days after Lady

Cassair’s landing in Ireland, Finntann, her husband (or son,
or both) fled to Toll Tuinde. Here he survived the Great Flood
in a flood-barrel, a cavern, or perhaps shape-changed as a
salmon.

TOM (towm), a hillock, English tomb, Latin tumulus.

TOM AN IONGHNAIDH, the “wonder-tuft.” An animal found

amidst the grain, a shape-changer typically seen as a gray
stone. When met in harvesting, the “corn” around this
creature was left standing so as not to antagonize it. This
creature was credited with human rapes and abductions
when annoyed.

TOM-CNOC, tom, tufted; + cnoc, hill, such as that favoured

by the Daoine sidh (which, see). The first word has come
into the Scottish vernacular as toom, conferring with tomb,
a hollow place. Hence the knockers that dwell in mines and
caverns. Similar to the house-dwelling knowie-booh, or
knocky-booh. The English word tommy was applied to
soldiers in both World Wars had reference to their toom-
shaped helmets. By association, a tommy came to be
recognized as any individual who offered his labour in
exchange for little more than food or clothing.
In Gaelic lands, he was called the bodach na' cnoc, or
bodach of the hollow-hills. The local tommy knockers
correspond with the wichtlein (little wights) of Southern
Germany. Keightley says they were "about three-quarters of
an ell (33") high. Their appearance is that of old men with
long beards. They haunt the mines, and are dressed like
miners, with a white hood to their shirts and leather
aprons, and are provided with lanterns, mallets and
hammers. They amuse themselves by pelting the workmen
with small stones but do them no injury, except when they
are abused and cursed at. They show themselves especially
where there is an abundance of ore, and then the miners are
glad to see them; they flit about in pits and shafts and
appear to work very hard, though they in reality do nothing.
sometimes they are seen as if working a vein, at other
times putting the ore into buckets, at other times working
at a windlass, but all is show. They frequently call, but
when one comes there is no one there.

At Kattenburg, in Bavaria, they are very common and

they announce the death of a miner by knocking three times,
and also knock three times when any misfortune is about to
happen." These spirits are mentioned briefly in Bluenose
Magic:,

A miner at Springhill told Helen Creighton, "I've heard

of Tommy Knockers having been heard before an accident.
Men have often seen lights before an accident and they
would quit and come up." Again at Stellarton, Nova Scotia,
a resident suggested, "If miners heard a certain tapping in
the mine they would close it down and stop work for the
day." A third respondent from Port Mounton said that the
"knockers" were known in Queens County mines. Completely
typical is a tale that came from the Mount Pleasant tin mine
in Charlotte County, a hard rock mine that is now closed.
Igneous rock mines are generally less susceptible to cave-
in than coal mines, but this one was penetrated by vertical
cracks filled with white clay and fluorine crystals. When
surface water created a washout of this material there was
some danger than a miner might be buried or drowned. In
this instance, two miners were working at reinforcing the
timbered roof of a kaolin "plug" when three determined
tapping noises were heard. Since the incident took place in
"modern times", these fellows were not superstitious and
probably knew nothing of tommy-knockers. They would
probably have ignored this warning if they had not been
pelted with rock shards. Thinking that other miners were
"having their fun" they charged up the tunnel to do battle,
but found nothing in the darkness. Behind them they heard
the swoosh of water as an underground lake emptied into
the portion of the mine where they had stood.

A less usual tale was that of Lazy Lew and the "Devil's
imps". This miner was employed in the Maccan coal mine
which used to be found a mile west of Maccan River. This
mine was opened in eighteen sixty one and extracted about
twenty tons of coal each day. While working underground
Lew claimed he had contracted with a devil, perhaps the
Devil, to exchange his soul for help at work. Lew's co-
workers thought this a pitiful tale but were surprised when
the miner commenced to send up twelve carts of ore per day
where his former record had been four. It was evident that
something was helping Lew as ordinary men were only able
to produce six in a working day. A burly miner agreed to spy
out the situation and arrived at the "front" to find Lew lying
at ease, his hands behind his head, while the eerie sound of
several picks was heard knocking away the coal. After coal
was slid down the balance into the level, Lew moved to help
in filling the cart, but other invisible shovels were heard in
the piles of coal. Lew's life style changed for the better but
on one shift no cars came up from "the devil's workshop".
Fearing the worst, men rushed to the rescue and found a
solid wall of coal filled in across the mouth of the level.
They dug in it and rescued Lew, who following
hospitalization, quit the mine. The bodachs of the mine, he
explained, had become frantic workaholics and hemmed him
in with coal, almost claiming his soul.

Creighton reveals the fact that, "Tommy Knockers

used to be heard in the mines in Queen's County (Nova
Scotia)..." In the Springhill coal mines they were routinely
heard before disasters. "Men have often seen lights before
an accident and they would quit and come up. Before
Christmas if one were killed there seemed to be three...In
Stellarton (Pictou County, N.S.) if miners heard a certain
tapping in the mine they would come up and stop work for
that day." In his History of the Great Disaster

At Springhill Mines, R.A.H. Morrow adds that "Distant

rumblings, sepulchral voices, human beings with flaming
fire-heads and spectre-like visages, clattering hoofs and
other unique surroundings, are more than convincing that if
this place is not the abode of "the angels which kept not
their first estate, " it is certainly not the paradise of the
righteous..." In the Cumberland coal mines a mine horse
named Spot hauled thirteen coal cars up and down the slope
in one of the seams. Encountering invisible tommy-
knockers the animal refused to move forward and the roof
caved in trapping the unfortunate animal but saving the
lives of those who tried to get him to move. After that the
mine manager found himself paced by footsteps whenever he
entered the mine. When he stopped in his tracks, the
following steps ceased and when he took up he was certain
he was paced by an unseen being. For their part, the miners
insisted that they saw a recurring ghost of the old horse
complete with boxcars.

TOM CHALLTUINN, the Hazel mound. Site of the great sithean

near Aberfeldy. Associated with the fairy mounds of Cnoc
forbaidh and Craig Scriadhlain. It is said that visits
between the mounds took place triennially.

TOM NA-H IUBHRAICH, hillock of the Yew wood. Also known

as Tomnahurich Hill. A noted sidh-hill in Inverness,
Scotland. See iubhar, yew. A fiddler who fell asleep on this
summit was invited to play for the Daoine sidh. Shouting out
a Christian holy name he found himself returned to the
Upper World, but several hundred years had passed while he
entertained residents of the Otherworld. The 13th-century
poet, Thomas the Rhymer is said buried in the hill along
with his men and a white steed. Like King Arthur he is said
to be on call, to return to Scotland in a time of future need.
TOM NA SHIRICH, the “Hill of the Sidh,” near Inverness,
Scotland.

TONAG, a clew of yarn; the basic tool of witchcraft. Ton, the

rear end, the buns, the anus. Therefore, tonag also
describes a broad-beamed lady. Tonair, a broad-assed man.
Tonasg, a ball of yarn.

TOR, TORR, TAR, the Old Norse god Thor or Thorr, Germ.
Donar, cf. AS. Thur, as seen in Thurs-day, the god of Thunder.
Also, a conical hill or castle, a heap. In Norway, Iceland and
northern Scotland he was preferred over Odin being
conceived as the chief helpmate in war. He was seen as
healing disease, warding off demonic forces, and was the
god approached in contracting marriages. His name is seen
in the Gaelic torr, a conic hill or tower. Note also torrach,
pregnant, fruitful and torradh, the wake, funeral
solemnities; also torrunn, a great noise, thunder. In Gaul the
god was called Taranis and in Italy Jove. There are many
other related words (see below).

Thor, or Donar, is known to have ruled the north before

Odin, and he was always personified in sheet lightning,
which was supposed to represent his rage. The god of
thunder he was always honoured as the ultimate god of
Norway, and everywhere he was called, “old Thor.” In
Sweden it was rumoured that he often wore Odin’s broad-
brimmed hat, under which storm clouds gathered, and Thor’s
hat was a name given one of the tallest peaks in Norway.
The roar and the rumble of thunder used to be attributed to
Thor’s goat-drawn chariot moving across the skies. As
Thor’s control diminished, the southern Germans pictured
him as a travelling tin-smith, the noise in the sky being the
sounds of pots and pans clanging against the sides of his
peddlar’s wagon. It was said that Thor married twice,
initially to the goddess Iaranasaxa, the matriarch of the
Anglo-Saxons, and later to Sif.

He wore three silver stars in his deep steel-blue head

circlet, and it is no surprise to find these represented in
the heraldry of the Royal Scottish House of Moray. The
house of Moray were, literally, “The Kings of the Sea,” and
thus the three “stars of the north” are a Fomorian device.
He is given as the son of Jörd (also called Erda) of the
giant-kind. Even as a child he was of remarkable size and
strength and capable of terrible rage. His mother unable to
control him fostered him out to Vingnir and Hlora, who
taught him restraint. It would not be difficult to give the
Host to Tyr, and even earlier god who was once the most
widely worshipped metaphor for war and agriculture.

In the newer order he ranked below Odin and Thor in

the gatherings of the twelve principal deities of Asgard.
Tyr is identical with the Saxon god Saxnot (from sax, a
sword) and is therefore the male form of Irenasaxa, and
coherent with various sword-gods including Twe, Er, Heru,
Cherrui, Cheruski, and the more distant Gaelic deities Hu
and Aod. In some countries he was considered a god of the
sun, his shining sword blade being pictured as the emblem
of its rays. Like many of the northern Scots Tyr was left-
handed, and like Odin, one-eyed. The various sword dances
of Europe all spring from rites associated with this
somewhat blood-thirsty god. The sword is, of course, a
powerful phallic symbol, the counterpart of the womb,
referred to as the Cauldron of the Deep. According to legend
the sword of Tyr was fashioned by the same dwarfs as
those that fashioned Odin’s spear, and it was said that
those who held this talisman were certain of victory in war.
When it was stolen from a grove in northern Europe the Vala
(Valkyra) who guarded it predicted that its power would
continue but those who held it would eventually die by it.
Not long after the weapon was found being carried by
Vitellius, a Roman prefect, who was eventually hailed as
emperor. The new ruler was however addicted to food and
drink, and carelessly left the sword in an antechamber.

A German soldier, replaced the magic blade with his

own rusty one without the emperor noticing the exchange.
Later, defending his rights, Vitellus did discover the
substitution, and overcome by fear attempted to escape his
fate. He eventually came face-to-face with the German
thief who cut off his head using the scared sword. The
German knowing the dangers in holding the sword used it for
a time but buried it on a riverbank before it could live out
its promise of death. The next individual to appear before
his troops with this ancient sword was Attila the Hun. The
sword-god was considered dead by his time, but the north
Asia tribesman claimed to have received it as a revelation
of his promise as a world-conqueror. Attila was secretive
about the source of this finely crafted weapon, but it was
whispered that a herdsman, travelling in the wilderness
found one of his animals wounded by something sharp in the
earth.

Seeing, and fearing, the Spirit of Death which he had

recovered, the peasant took it to Attila, who had no fear of
it. He was helped in his wars by the reputation of this
magical piece but should have taken more notice of the
curse that went with it. The Burgundian princess named
Idico, wishing to avenge her dead kin, used it to despatch
Attila.

Again, this dangerous toy disappeared for a time but

was used by the Duke of Alva in defense of Charlemagne’s
interests. After the victorious battle of Mühlberg in 1547,
the Franks used the gleaming blade as a symbol for their
yearly martial games. When these people renounced the
heathen gods the weapon was supposedly given (for safe-
keeping) to the archangel named St. Michael, who
presumable still carries it in defense of Christendom. The
single-eyed, single-handed condition of the sword-gods
harks back to the sea-people, and this orb was known to
represent the sun at its blighting best.

In some parts of German, all these old gods were

preempted by the Saxon god Irmin. He also possessed a
ponderous brazen chariot in which he rode the skies with
the expected sound effects.! It was said that he rode upon
the path we call the Milky Way, which was once known as
Irmin’s Way (or as Vrou-elden-strat, the Street of the Old
ones). This thunder-chariot never left the skies and was
said seen in the constellation of the Great Bear, where it
used to be known as Irmin, Odin or Charles’ Wain (wagon). In
the Middle Ages, when even the names of the gods was
forgotten by most men, the leader of the Raging Host was
guessed to be other noteworthy heroes or devils, among
them, King Arthur, Frederick Barbarossa, Charlemagne, the
Squire of Rodenstein, Hans von Hackelberg, or some
noteworthy local Sabbath-breaker.

In the Christian world, folklore had it that the Host

was condemned to ride the winter sky in punishment for
sins. For a while the Host of England was known as the
Herlathing after the semi-mythic King Herla. In northern
France the term Mesnée de Hellequin was preferred, in
honour of the goddess Hel.

In the Celtic world, the gatherer of souls was always

the Cailleach bheurr, or Winter Hag, the game-keeper of the
north, the patroness of all wild things. Fleeing Scandinavia
this alter-ego of the youthful winter- goddess Skadi,
created Scotland for her animals by carrying earth across
the North Sea from Lochlann. A giantess, with a single eye,
she accidently spilled earth from her creel, thus creating
the western isles. She also inadvertently carried some of
the troublesome human-kind across from the continent.
Unfortunately, from her point of view, these little vermin
flourished, but wherever she could she blasted them with
lightning from her staff (some say from her hammer, thus
allying her with Thor). A frosty character, befitting a
death-goddess she shed snow wherever she travelled and as
a grey mare (symbolizing storm clouds) hopped from one
mountain top to another. The sight of her was said to
presage storm and men were careful not to mock her
passage by imitating the sounds of her ever-circling host.
Those who shouted to the skies with genuine enthusiasm
were not likely to be troubled and she always fancied a
little graio left standing in the winter fields.
 Those who were of the sea-blood of Mhorrigan were in
less fear of seeing crows flying the cold steel-grey skies,
but even they hated to be gifted with the small black dog
which the Host sometimes boarded upon people. This cur
whimpered away the entire year unless it could be
frightened or exorcised away. The winter-deity and all his
(or her) spectral kind hunted, raped and pillaged the earth,
the object of their fury being principally the god or goddess
who represented the summer sun. In some cases the animal
that was chased is thought to have been a horse or a boar,
but in some cases the victims were the white-breasted
Moss Maidens, wood-nymphs, thought to represent the last
leaves of autumn. Wherever in Europe men stood, the folk
believed that winter-storms represented something more
sinister than the interaction of the elements and they
especially feared the howling of a dog upon the wind, for
Uller and Cromm the Crooked were invariable accompanied
by at least two fierce black, bloodthirsty dogs, who were as
apt to carry off the living as the souls of those whose time
had come.

TORA, an augur. The Ir. tarachair;$Lat. terebra, the root

being the Gaelic thar, across, from beyond, from times past.
The Lat. trans; OIr. ter, to pass through or bore. See entries
below for comparable words.

TORADHAIR, a monster, a dwarf.

TOR BEALLTUINN, the Beltane Hill when sited on a torr, a

conic hill. The Norse god Thor has his name on this form of
hill.

TORC, hog, a boar. Obs. Lord, Sovereign, the heart, the face, a
torque or collar. One of the totems of the god Lugh.
Reference is made in the Leabor Gaballa to “Brigit, the
poetess, a daughter of Dagda , she who possessed Fea and
Femen, the two oxen of Dill.. With them was Triath, king of
all swine, for who is named Treitherne . Among these
animals was an outcry of three demon voices, whistling and
groaning and seeking the plunder of Ireland.” Another
mighty boar is mentioned in the Fenian tales. This animal
was Formael who once killed fifty hounds and dispatched an
equal number of warriors. This was “a black, shapely, dusky
swine.” He was further characterized as blue-black in
colour, earless, tailless and without testicles, “his teeth
standing out long and horrid from his big head...his mane
raised so high and rigid that apples might have been impaled
on the rough bristles.” See mucca. And next.

TORCHOS-BREIGE, the fabulous moon-calf.

TORCRAD, torc, boar; rad, collective, feminine, folk. Ancient

Gaelic name for a sept or clan of the region.

TORCULL, Torcall, Torquil from ON. Thorkell, a shortened

form of Thorketill, Thor’s kettle. Also Corquodale.

TORMADH, pregnant, growing big. Torr, the womb, conical

hill or mountain. Torraich, to make pregnant.

TORMOID, Tòrmod, dial. Tormailt, earlier Tormond and

Tormode from the ON Thórmóthr, the “wrath of Thor,” more
literally the mother of Thor, Norman. Eng. mood. The name
has the sense of “under Thor’s protection.” Confers with
Germ. Gearmailt.

TORRACH, “struck by Thor,” pregnant woman, fruitful,

related to toradh. fruit. Note tor, a heap, belly.

TORRADH, the charming away of milk from cows; also the

waking of the dead, funeral solemnities, EIr. torroma,
standing by, watching, attending; to-rad, to give, to produce
fruit. The continuance of this evil over a long period
typically led to the death of the animal. See thoir. A
practise associated with northern wizards, adherents of
Thor. Because of the value of cows to the Gaelic economy,
this was the most feared of evil influences. Note that it
was directed against a "blessed" animal, under the
patronage of the pagan goddess Boanne.
 The devices used to part a cow from its milk were
extremely varied. On Eriskay an owner noticed that his cow
gave little milk, and examining the milking-station found,
just below the ground, a magical "vessel" woven from the
hair of various others cows in the neighbourhood. It was
supposed that in milking the milk passed into this reservoir
rather than the usual milking pail, being retrieved by the
baobh in the dead of night. Another man who knew his cows
were being "troubled" went to the home of the person he
suspected. Finding only a child at home he asked, "Where
does your mother get the milk she gives you to drink?"
Without hesitation she pointed out the cauldron chain just
under the smoke hole in the centre of the room: "Out of the
chain!" "Come, little one, show me how she gets it." "Like
this," said the child, and as she drew down the chain milk
flowed readily from it. Seeing this, the visitor tore down
the chain in spite of prohibitions against even touching it.
After that the milk returned to his cows. Fortunately there
are as many cures for the torradh as there are means of
extracting milk illegally. Some cow-herds attached the
buarach (which, see) to their animal just prior to milking,
but were careful to put it away afterwards supposing that
loss of it would give the finder permanent control over the
flow of milk. The simple act of publicly rebuking a milk-
pirate was often enough to bring the stealing to an end. "If
a person is very much afflicted in regard to the "torradh" he
is wise to adopt the following remedy. Whenever one of his
cows has a calf. to take it away before any milk is drawn.
Then taking a bottle he is to draw milk from the four teats,
this to be done kneeling. The bottle is then tightly corked;
this is important, for carelessness in this respect might
give access to the torradh and upset everything. Another
method is for a man - a woman won't do - to go to the house
of the suspected person and pull off from the roof as much
thatch and divots as his two hands will hold, and over this
to boil what little milk is left until it dries up. Another
informant advised burning the thatch under the churn,
instead of under the milk. Another means of removing this
blight from one's cattle is to bury the carcass of one of the
victims by a boundary stream. Similarly you may transfer
it (the curse) to your neighbour by burying the corpse on his
land."

In the most extreme case where cows were milked to

death by wandering spirits during the night it was
suggested that the hide of the most recent victim should be
placed on the thatch of one's house. Invariably the totem
bird of the baobh would be drawn to, and perch upon, this
remain. The next calf to be born was then named after this
bird, thus ending the "murrain" for the entire herd.

TORRANAN, the figwort (Scrophularia), G. Torr, ON. Thor;

annamh, rare, not-tamed. A species found in rocky places in
the uplands of Scotland. The flower is white and forms a
cuach or cup which is breast-shaped. It is said that this
part fills with dew on increase of the tide, but dries on the
ebb. To obtain the significant virtues of this plant it had to
be picked at the time of high-water, or at least on the
gathering of the tide. There are pagan and Christian
incantations associated!with taking this plant (See the
Silver Bough p. 24). The torranan, once obtained is placed
under the milk pail and circled three times while repeating
an appropriate eolas or spell. This act was said to insure
the free flow of milk as well as proper maturation of milk
and cheese. The leaf was applied “to cuts and bruises to
sores and tumours,” supposedly with good effect. In the
western isles of Scotland the plant was placed over animal
byres for general protection and “to ensure milk in the
cows.” A charm for plucking the figwort translates into
English as follows: “I pluck the figwort with the fruitage of
sea and land. It is the plant of joy and gladness, of rich
milk, as the lord of heaven ordained. It puts milk in breast
and testicle, places substance in udder and kidney. It is
with milk, with milkiness, with buttermilk, in produce,
whisky whey, in milk-product. I pluck for the spotted
female calves, those without male calves. It brings progeny,
joy, fruitage, love, charity and bounty.”

TORRDARROCH, Hill of the oak. In Shaw country. The location

of a ring-cairn that”marks the mid-summer moon-set.”
Nearby at Daviot there is an oval-shaped ring-cairn “said to
indicate the path of Venus at the four quarters of the year.”

TORRUNN, thunder, EIr. torand, related to Gaul god. Taranis

as well as the Teutonic Thor. G. Tor or Tar. See thoir.

TORMAS GOBHA, literally Thor of the huge buttocks (read

genitals), the Wayland Smith of English mythology. Confers
with Culann or Manann mac Ler.

TOR MOR, great tower, tor, Thor; mor, great; great tower,
great Thor. See thoi. This place, said to concentrate the
forces of the sun, was located on Torrry Island, northwest
of Ireland. Balor of the Evil Eye, the chief Fomorian at this
place, may correspond with Thor. The former god-giant
struck at men with "a single glance from his venomous eye,"
while Thor killed men with lightning bolts. On the
Continent, Thor predated Tyrr and Odin as the penultimate
mortal god. His name is recalled in the families named
Tormoid, Tormod, Tormailt (Thor's protection) and Torquil,
Torcull, or Torcall, from the Norse Thorkill a shortened
form of Thorketill (Thor's kettle) elaborated in Gaelic as
Corgitill, Mhac Corcadail and anglicized as Maccorquodale.

TORA, augur, prognostication, divine wind, Ir. tarachair, EIr.

tarathar, Cy taradr, Br. tarazr. Latin terebra, from ter, to
pass through. From the god Tor or Thor.

TORC, a torque. An ornament of twisted metal worn on the

arm or at the throat. “They have a religious connotation and
are often seen on the necks of gods as well as heroes.” The
Old Irish word torc, in fact, signifies a chieftain or hero.

TORMAN MULAD, murmur of sadness. The bittersweet cry of

the banshee, announcing the death of any of the Firbolge.

TORTHAIR, monster, dwarf.

TOSCAIREAN DOISGEUL, a propagandistic or revisionist

historian, an indoctrinator, a proselytizer, in particular, a
Jesuit missionary

TOUTA, adjectival, tout-s, left-handed, good, good-omened,

see tuathal, Tuatha daoine, etc. The “flitting-time” for
farm workers and “fairies,” i..e. the Quarter-Days.

TRASG-DUBH, the black fast. An attempt to obtain justice

by fasting on the doorstep of an individual wrong-doer. The
offensive party could mount his own fast and the survivor
was considered the offended party.

TRAOGH-CHAIRN, the shore of the cairn-stones, conferring

with the Norse Helluland. Ciabhan was exiled here after his
unfortunate affair with the Fomorian princess named
Cliodhna.. In historic times this land was located in North
America, often being associated with Baffin Island.

TRAOGH MÓR, properly traeth, shore (and not necessarily

“strand” as some authors suggest). Mór, great. Root of the
former is trag, to leap or draw, having special reference to
the ebb-tide. A mythic Atlantic land, also termed Tir nam
Beo. Quite possibly within the Bay of Fundy, in Maritime
Canada, since this is the only North American coastal
location having extreme tides.

TREANADH, lamentation, wailing. Also the Gaelic name for

Whitsuntide, the week from Thursday to Thurday
immediately following Whit Sunday. Treann, field-rites.

TREN FHER, strong man; a champion of a principality or

country. Required to answer all challenges to single combat,
appearing as a substitute for his leader. An avenger of
insults. The name is anglicized as Traynor.

TREOGH DUBH, the black shore. The upper intertidal zone,

where seaweeds are deposited by the tide, the boundary
beyond which supernaturals of the land dared not pass.
Similarly they could not pass over a flowing stream.

TREUN-DHAN, an epic or heroic poem.

TREORAICH, soul blessing at death.

TRI, three, triad, etc. The gods and goddess of the Gaelic
lands were frequently represented as trinities. It was not
uncommon for Celtic artists to represent their deities and
heroes as three-headed. See entries below.

TRIALL, going, journey; originally two parts, tri-all, going

through. The migration to and from the hill-pastures at the
time of Beltane and Samhain. The removal took place on the
first day of May, the triall being led by sheep, cattle
following according to their age, goats similarly arrayed,
with horses positioned at the rear. When different clans
met, great courtesy was demanded: they were all required
to bless the passing procession wishing luck and prosperity
even to enemies. In the upper hills families went to their
traditional hill-crofts where a male lamb without blemish
was killed and eaten. See Samhuinn for an explanation of
this latter-day activity. Until this century, “Throughout
Lewis the crofters of the town-lands go to the sheiling
(countryside) on the same date each year, and they return to
it the same date each year. the sheep and cattle know their
day as well as do the men and women, and on that day...all
the ni’ flocks are astir and restless to be off.”

TRI-AN, the third part. In the lowlands, this was a portion

of land known as the “Gudeman’s Croft,” “Halyman’s Rig,”
“Cloutie’s Croft,” the “Black Faulie,” or the “Devil’s Half
Acre” It was variously deeded to the gods, earth spirits,
the side, witches or the “Goodman,” the Devil of the witch
fraternity. No spade or plough was permitted to touch this
land which was often smaller than the name might suggest.
There were “crofts” associated with large estates and the
smallest peasant holdings. The procedure was to enclose a
selected spot, repeating words that deeded it to whatever
devil the land owner feared. In token of the promise, stones
were cast over the enclosing dyke built around the land.
This procedure of dedicating land to the old gods continued
into the last century and was intended to placate an evil
inherent in the land. Obsolete, the Christian Triune.

TRIAN-RI-TRIAN, “third-against-third,” the peculiar cry of

the bird known as the corn-crake. This was a bird of ill
omen, not to be harmed.

TRIATH, lord, chief, Lat. tritavus, any ancestor as far back

as the sixth degree.

TRID, a rag, a clout, to pass through. A means of eliminating

evil spirits by attaching them to a rag of clothing once
worn by the victim. Anyone contacting this bit of material
was thought to acquire this unwanted “ghost.”

TRI DE DAOINE, “The Three gods of the People,” “The Three

gods of Danu.” See Daoine sidh and Lugh.

TRIDUAN, the “three poems.” Also the fasting for three days
which went with this ritual. Fasting and chanting was the
means to attaining shamanistic “madness” and the
following enlightenment. Three days and nights was the
time allowed this procedure.

TRILIS, locks of hair in bunches of three, cf. Eng. tress, from

Lat. tricia, a plait. Thus braided hair, in three parts, from
the root tri. Honouring the tripartite goddess Mhorrigan.

TRI PEATHRAICHEAN COIMHEAC, the “Three Weird Sisters,”

the Fates, the Bafinn; individually, Mhorrigan, governess of
past events; Badb or Mebd, the present; and Macha, the
future crone. The suppliers of individual befinds to men and
the gods. Those that govern men for good or ill. This is the
triad which the southern Irish hero Fionn perceived in a
dream: They came as three black birds, like eagles or
vultures. They settled beside him and he saw that they had
become women, but the ugliest he had ever seen:
"terrorlike, disgusting, screeching, destructive, clawing,
lashing (all of these words are alliterative in Gaelic and
thus are hallowed in use). They had straggly black hair
down to their loins and it badly needed combing. They were
goggle-eyed. They had long wrinkled, corrugated faces that
needed washing. the look of unhappiness was on their faces.
They had bent noses like a sickle. Their nails were as long
as a rooster's spurs and as bent. They wore short outlandish
dresses all in tatters and it would have been better had they
been longer...their voices were high and piping."

While they had formal names, the three sisters, who

the Anglo-Saxons called the Wyrds, were known in Gaelic
folklore as Gorag (Foolish), Grodag (Rotten) and Robag
(Filthy), and this was particularly the case with the advent
of Christianity. Notice that these three are the models for
the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

The following story involving these ladies is

recounted by J.G. Campbell: Fionn was supposedly encamped
with his men at the Hill of Howth, in Alba, when they saw a
boat emerging from the west “with all the blackness of a
shower.” While they watched the ship was drawn ashore to
seven times its length and a sheiling built at the sea-side.
Observing that the building which was put up was of a much
finer craftsmanship than was general for Ireland, Fionn
went down to see what was afoot, and was surprised to find
three Fomors. When he asked about their mission in Ireland
they openly replied that the King of the West had sent them
to do open combat with the Fionn. Mac Cumhail was
surprised to hear this since he had parted from the west
leaving those people as allies. When the giants asked if
Fionn was in the region, he said “Probably not!” and retired
leaving the big fellows pinned down by an enchantment
which prevented them from leaving the general area until
they saw him a second time.

Thinking it best to check matters with Abartach the

king of the Undersea Kingdom, Fionn launched his one-man
coracle on the sea and hoisted “the spotted towering sails”
to the wind. After landing in the far country, Fionn was
picked up by a man questing after a dwarf for the king. At
the court incognito , he and his dog Bran made spectacular
entertainment, but came to be most appreciated by the king
for overcoming “a great Monster who wants my daughter and
half my kingdom to himself.” The creature that was taken
down was much like the Anglo-Saxon Grendel, destroyed by
Beowulf, but in this version of the tale, it was the dog and
his “venomous boots,” that did in the sea-creature. “He
struck the monster on his breast bone and took the heart and
lungs out of him.” The father of this creature showed up for
battle on a subsequent night, and this time Bran was a more
reluctant ally, but he did accomplish what Fionn was unable
to do in single combat.

On a third night, the “mother of all evil” appeared

looking for satisfaction, but this hag was put down with
poison. The king recognizing the fact that he hosted a great
eastern hero asked the name of his guest and was pleased to
hear that he entertained the renowned Fionn mac Cumhal.
For his part Fionn was surprised that no mention was made
of any vendetta, and when he asked why he was pursued by
three Fomorian warriors, the king of the west explained
that these “heroes” were not his men, but those of three
sith (the Bas-finne). Although the King of the Big Men could
not recall these warriors he was able to tell Fionn that the
three women had given their lovers shirts which gave them
the strength of a hundred men, and that it would be
advisable to approach them at night when their shirts were
removed.

Fionn was now given every honour and allowed to

depart. Just as he was pulling away, three sith men seeking
work appeared at the quay, and they were hired to relieve
the problems in managing an ocean-going coracle single-
handed. Back in Ireland, Fionn was able to make immediate
use of the individual skills of these men, for the soothsayer
was able to tell him when the Fomorian giants were bedded
down for the night, while the thief was able to relieve them
of their magic-shirts. At first light Fionn appeared at the
door of the Fomorians, beating on his shield for attention
and as a challenge. Seeing that they were not outfitted to
beat down their opponent, the Fomorians admitted their
inability to do combat and their connection with the
Mhorrigan and begged forgiveness. Fionn swore them to
the cause of the Féinn and they proved faithful to his cause
from that time on.

TRIONAID (tree-ahn-ahj), OIr. tridoit, from Latin, trinitas,

from tre, three. The old pagan trinities of gods and
goddesses. See entry immediately above; also, Bafinn. The
concept of triads is prominent in Celtic rites. Diogenes (2nd
century B.C.) mentioned that the druids imparted their
knowledge in lessons which were parcelled in threes. The
numbers three, and three times three, permeate Gaelic
philosophy and art. Hilary, Bishop of Portiers in 350 A.D.,
the first Celt to become a force in the Christian movement,
wrote Di Trinitate in defense of a tripartate Christian God.
Hilary was imbued with the tradition of his people and the
concept of a Holy Trinity probably owes more to paganism
than to Judaeo-Grecian ideas. In earlier times the trinities
were honoured by the creation of pleated wreaths made of
ivy, woodbine and rowen. These were placed on the lintels
of buildings to safeguard against the evil eye and murrain.
Not that druidic ranns were also triads:
 Strength in our hands,
Truth on our lips,
Purity in our hearts.

TROISGEUL, ill-omened, general intelligence, ill-omened or

not.

TRIOCHILEAN. A dwarf, the Willow Wren.

TROISGEUL, ill-omened augury, unlucky news. Before

delivering such information of death, destruction or ill-will
it is best to preface it with: “Away with this ill-news!”
Otherwise it is implicit that bad luck will fall within the
house where this news is revealled.

TRIPLEAG, a “fairy” spell.

TRITHEANN, obs. The Holy Trinity.

TRIUCAIR, a rascal,, from Scot. truker, a deceitful person,

OF. tricher, to trick.

TROICH, TROICHILEAN, a dwarf, the willow wren; see droich

of which this is a dialectic form. See trow.

TROM-LIGHE, nightmare, trom. heavy; lighe, flood. Also

known as the "alp" or ailp (which, see). Those who slept
under the weight of this sigh often reported sensations of
rape, suffocation or drowning.

TROMAN, dwarf, elder, OIr. tromm, also troww and droman

(which, see). The sea-going water troll. Related to Middle
English troll from the Old Norse trold. A dialectic form
used in northern Scotland, confers with trough, any
container hollowed from wood, for example a butter bowl.
From this we have trow, a boat carved from wood and
trough, the hollow of a wave. The word troll from the
German trollen, to wander in far places, is confluent. The
Scottish word trow has been used to identify devils and the
Devil, but it is properly applied to the more or less
malignant spirits of the northern Scottish islands. The
trows of the sea are known as haafs in continental Europe.
Those of the land are, "of diminutive stature, and usually
dressed in gay green garments...They inhabit the interior of
the green hills...They marry and have children (and) are fond
of music and dancing...The trows are not free from disease
but they are possessed of infallible remedies, which they
sometimes bestow on their (human) favourites...When they
want beef...they betake themselves to the Shetlanders
scatholds, or townmails, and with elf-arrows bring down
their game. On these occasions they delude the eyes of the
owner with the appearance of something exactly resembling
the animal whom they have carried off, and by its apparent
death by some accident...Lying-in women and bairns they
considered a lawful prize. The former they employ as a
wet-nurse, the latter they rear as their own. In case of
paralysis Shetlanders hold that the trows have taken away
the sound member. They even sometimes sear the afflicted
part, and for want of sensation in it boast of the
correctness of this opinion."

TROSCAD, a “hunger strike.” The black-fast. Men who felt

offended fasted on the doorstep of the offender. This
individual could mount his own fast and the survivor was
considered to be the offended party.

TROST. a sturdy little human, a dwarf, the clank of things in

contact, particularly metals. Confers with the next word.

TROW, TROWW, dwarf from Sc. trold, one of the little people
of the earth. Malformed individuals, as opposed to the
svartalfar, or dark elfs, who were bound to the Underground.
In most parts of Gaeldom the under-hill people were known
as the Daoine sidh, an exception being northern Scotland and
the Isles where they were called the trow, ON. troll.

On the Shetlands it was said: "The trows are of

diminutive stature, and they are usually dressed in gay
green garments. When travelling from one place to another
they may be seen mounted on bulrushes and flying through
the air. If a person should happen to meet them he should if
he has not a bible in his pocket, draw a circle round him on
the ground, and in God's name forbid their approach. They
are fond of music and dancing...they are free from disease
because they possess infallible remedies (against disease)...
They have all the picking and thieving propensities of the
Scandinavian trolls. The dairy-maid sometimes detects a
trow-woman secretly milking the cows...she sains herself
and the thief takes to flight leaving behind a copper pan of a
kind not often seen. When they want beef or mutton, the
trows betake themselves to the Shetlanders' "scatholds"
(towns) carrying their elf-arrows to bring down "game." On
these occasions they delude the eyes of the owner with the
appearance of something exactly resembling the animal
whom they have carried off, and by its apparent violent
death by some accident...It is on this account that the flesh
of such animals is regarded as improper food. A Shetlander
who is yet alive (1880) affirms he was once taken into a
hill by the trows. Here one of the first objects he met was
his own cow, that was brought in to furnish for a banquet...
On returning home he learned, to his great surprise, that at
the very moment he saw his cow brought into the hill,
others had seen her falling over the rocks." "Lying-in women
and unchristened bairns they regarded as lawful prize. The
former they employ as wet-nurses, the latter they rear up
as their own. Nothing will induce parents to show any
attention to a child they suspect of being a changeling.
There have been persons who undertook to enter the hills to
regain a lost child. In cases of paralysis (the islanders)
believe the trows have taken away the solid member and
left a log behind. They sometimes even scar the part, and
from the want of sensation boast of the correctness of this
opinion." (Gnomes Fairies Elves and Other Little People, p.
166). See also trow n' muir, for an account of the sea-
trows.

TROW NA' MUIR, the “sea trow, or troll.” "With respect to

the sea-trows, it is the belief of the Shetlanders that they
inhabit a region of their own at the bottom of the sea. They
require a peculiar atmosphere and live in habitations
constructed of the choicest submarine productions. When
they visit the upper world on matters of business or
curiosity, they are obliged to enter the skin of some animal
capable of respiring the water. One of the shapes they
assume is that commonly called a merman or mermaid. But
there most favourite vehicle is the skin of the larger seal
for this animal is amphibious and can land on some rock.
There they can cast off their sea-dress, and amuse
themselves as they will in the upper world. They must,
however, take especial care of their skins, as each has but
one, and if it should be lost, the owner can never re-descend
(to the deep). (Gnomes Fairies Elves and Other Little
People, pp. 166-167).

TRUAILL. a sheath, the foreskin, from the Celtic root trod,

to push, Lat. trudo, Eng. thrust, trod, trom. As a verb, to
pollute, violate, OIr. druailnithe, to corrupt or spoil. Thus
the modern druis, lust, and druiseach, lecherous. Confers
with draoi, a magician, a druid.

TUAGE. A mortal love interest of Manann mac Ler. He sent

the druid named Fer Ferdiad to fetch her from Ireland. The
druid lulled her to sleep with music and led her, in a trance,
to Ibhear Glas on the western coast of Ireland. While he
sought a ship to transport her to the Otherworld the tide
came ashore and drowned Tuage. For this dereliction Manann
mac Ler slew the magician.

TUAICHEAL, dizziness, tuachioll, winding about, eddying,

moving widdershins, i.e. against the course of the sun,
“left=about, “ Ir. tuachail, going about in a confused state,
tuath + cell, left (north) going. Compares with tuaineal,.
dizziness, stupor, Ir. toineall, a fay-induced trance, a
swoon. Cf. tuaitheal, wrong, left-wise, Ir. tuathal, the left
hand, awkward. See tuatha.

TUAIR, obs. bode, portend, predict, tuairneadh. foreboding,

tuairp, prophecy.
TUAITH, inflection of tuath, lordship, territory, sagacity,
skill.

TUAM, TUAMA, a tomb, Lat. tumulus.

TUAN MAC CAIRELL. The tale of Tuan which was preserved

in The Book of the Dun Cow a manuscript from about the
year 1100 A.D. This Farlander was the son of Starn who
was the son of Sera and the brother to Partholon. After the
great pestilence this sole survivor wandered about from one
vacant settlement to the next, but saw nothing except
wolves. For twenty-two years it is said that he lived
without comfort or company, until at last he fell “into the
decrepitude of old age.” He was apprently unaware of the
presence of a parallel character, the flood survivor
Finntann. Speaking of the Partholons this character says, in
the 1913 ballad:

Again, when death seized on these

strangers
I roamed the land merry and free,
Both careless and fearless of dangers
Til Blithe Nemid came over the sea.

According to Tuan the new arrivals were relatives led by

Nemed the son of Agnoman, another brother to Partholon.
We are not told how Finntann greeted these folk, but Tuan
kept his own company As Tuan approached old age, he
enacted no magic but was spontaneously transformed into a
deer and regained his youth following a full cycle for this
animal he was again reborn as a black boar. After a time
the old Farlander began to suspect that some powerful force
was responsible for his rejuvenation, and having time for
thought recalled that in old age he had always sought out a
cave in Ulster. The next time he became aged, Tuan tested
this theory and found himself reborn in another animal body.
The place of rebirth was obviously a “kettle of
regeneration” some reflection of the Fomorian “womb of all
things” which the land people had not yet pirated from the
sea-folk. Our ballad has this to say of the next wave of
visitors to Ireland:

The Firbolgs and roving Firgallions

Came next like the waves in their flow;
The Firdonnans arrived in battalions
And landed in Erris - Mayo.

Then came the wise Tuatha de Danaans,

Concealed in black clouds from their foe;
I feasted them near the Shannon
Though that was a long time ago.
After them came the Children of Mil
From Spain, o’er the southern waves;
I lived with the tribes as their Filea (poet)
And chanted the deeds of their braves...

His final demise is not recounted.

TUAR, hue, appearance, but in MIr. an omen or foretelling, a

presage, root ver as in fuathair. See fuath.

TUASGART, obs. north. Still seen: tuaisgeart, The High North.

Same as tuath.

TUATH, people, tenants, tenantry, rustics, north,

northerners, OIr. left, north, the Hebrides. Possibly rooted
in tu, to grow large, to increase, to be powerful; taugh.
Dominion; tuathach, lord, ruler; tuir, lord, general, leader;
tura, much, plenty, abundance; tormach, an increase; and
tuirean, a troop or multitude. Note the related adj. touto,
left-handed, "good", "well omened." The root-word may be
su, "turning toward", to twist. Cf. OIr. tuath, populace, Cy.
tud, country, nation, Cor. tus, Br. tud, Gaul. nation; One
wordsmith has it that he is “one of the Germanic races,
adherents of this god of war and agriculture. Teo, an old
Gaulic name for “god,” is also Teutates, the name of a
Gaullish deity. The root is found in Teutomatus, the name of
a king of the Nitibriges, and in Teutobodiaci, the name of a
people of Galatia..” This is probably too specific the god
being rather more generally known as Tout, Teuto, Due, Tue,
Tyrr, Thor, the Gaelic god Hues. Latin toto, the state, also
that for the Germanic Deutsch as well as the people of the
neighbouring low country, the Dutch. See Aog. Confers with
ME. tyle, tile and thule. Applied variously to northern
Ireland, northern Scotland, to Greenland and to the mystery
islands of the Atlantic. These were the Tuatha daoine,
people of the goddess Danu, residents of Ireland with seats
at Tara and Armagh. Defeated by the Milesians they were
driven to the offshore islands and into the Underworld
where they were slightingly called the Daoine sidh, or
people of the side-hills. The "wee-folk", the "little people"
corresponding with the Teutonic "elfs" and the British
"fayries."

TUATHA CRUITHNE, the Picts, Northern Britons, see

Cruithne.

TUATHA DAOINE (tootha donnu) Ir. TUATHA DANANN (tootha

dah-nan), the Northern People. “People of the goddess Danu.”
Also called the Firdonnans.

In the myths it was held that they lived originally “in the
northern isles of the world learning lore and magic and
druidism and wizardry and all cunning until they surpassed
the sages of heathendom. They came from four cities,
somewhere in the north, to wit Falias, Gorias, Murias and
Findias. Here they supposedly learned their arts and crafts,
their science and the diabolic business. Out of the first
island-kingdom came the Stone of Fal, which was in Tara.
It used to roar under every (legitimate) king that would take
the realm of Ireland. Out of Gorias was brought the spear
that Lugh had. Out of Findias was brought the Sword of
Nuada. Out of Murias was brought the Dagda’s cauldron.”
What is not mentioned is that all of these magical devices
were booty from An Domhain.

Gerald Hawkins has identified these "northern isles"

as belonging to the Greecian landfall, rather than the far
north of Scandinavia. In addition to their lore, magic,
druidism, wisdom and cunning, the Tuathans came to Ireland
as possessors of "the diabolic arts" and were practitioners
of "every sort of paganism". Their magic included arts of
conciliation, for it is recorded that they "travelled between
the Athenians and Philistines", apparently as mediators.

According to one legend, the Tuatha daoine were

descendants of a few Nemedians who had returned to Greece
after their abortive settlement of Ireland. The old
homeland was not forgotten and they sailed away "in great
speckled ships" to reclaim the land of their forefathers. It
is said that they came specifically "to take the land from
the Firbolg". They landed on the first day of May, which they
perceived as the annual time for the final battle between
winter and summer. They equated themselves with the gods
of light and the Firbolgs with those of darkness, thus this
augured well for the beginning of combat.

In putting down the Firbolgs, the Tuathans had

assistance from the Fomorians, the alliance being firmed up
by marriage between the two tribes. Among their
champions, the warrior-magicians numbered Breas, whose
mother was a Tuathan princess, while his father Elatha was
chieftain of Fomorian sea-pirates from the Hebrides. Unlike
most of his Fomorian kin, Breas was a handsome youth and
completely without blemish. When King Nuada lost his hand
and throne, the Tuathans assembled and elected this young
man as his successor.

Breas managed to keep Ireland for seven years. The

Tuatha daoine expected him to show favouritism toward his
fathers race, but were incensed when he refused to take
action against the Fomorians who raided their villages. He
was not, however, deposed for mismanagement as much as
meaness. In those days an open hand was more important
than a open heart, patronage being expected of the high king.
"The knives of his people", it was noted, "were not greased
at his table, nor did their breath smell of ale at the banquet.
Neither their poets, nor their bards, nor their satirists, nor
their harpers, nor their pipers, nor their trumpeters, nor
their jugglers, nor their buffons, were ever seen engaged in
amusing them in assembly at his court." As a consequence
there was constant grumbling among his retainers for the
king represented the collective spirit of his people and
meaness was considered a disgrace. To compound his
niggarliness, Breas committed the unforgivable sin of
insulting Cairbre, the greatest poet and songsmith in the
land.

The poets required a minimum of twelve years of

apprenticeship. The lowest grade of bard had mastery of
sixteen of the three hundred and fifty different metres of
poetry. The king-bard had mastered all of these forms and
could compose impromtu shorter poems on any subject
which happened to be suggested. The poet-ollam was,
additionally, a master of history, the antiquities and
genealogies of the leading families of the land, and could
recount them on request.

Although poets were attached to certain

principalities, they frequently went on circuit, visiting
minor and major kings, chanting their praises in direct
proportion to the patronage they received. Every poet
travelled with a retinue of from ten to twenty-four
attendants, but the most famous travelled with three or
four times this prescribed number. All courts and
residences were thrown open to a visit from the ollam
which was usually restricted to a single night. In later
days, poets sometimes imposed themselves on a particular
prince for days, weeks, months or even years, his company
being supported by the host. The tongues of the poets were
feared because of their ability with satire, and the fees
they received were usually voluntary and generous.

Breas may have been unfamiliar with the customs of

the Tuatha daoine respecting their poets. Cairbre expected
a lavish banquet and quarters, but the King placed him in a
bare cold apartment and presented him with a few dried
 oat-cakes on a small platter. The ollam said nothing but
departed with unusual haste and composed a withering
satire, which was repeated throughout the land. Incensed by
this final evidence of avarice, the people rose and drove
this boorish Fomorian from the throne of Tara. They
recalled King Nuada Airgead Lam (of the Silver Hand) and
restated him as king in spite of his "blemish".

Breas fled to the Hebrides, where he complained to his

father Elatha. The latter collected a mighty sea-fleet and
soon filled the ocean from Scotland to Eirinn with a host of
Fomorians. Among these was Balor Beimann, a chieftain
whose people occupied Tory Island, off the northwestern
coast of the Tuathan island.

Balor was reputed to live in a "crystal" palace which

had the ability to collect, focus and direct sunlight with
devastating effect against distant targets. It may be
relevant that the Gaelic verb "bailim" still means "to gather
or collect". This "bal-or", or "god of the sun" has been
represented not as a technologist but as "Balor of the Evil
Eye" or "Balor of the Piercing Eye" in Celtic myth: "His one
eye was never opened but on the battlefield, when four men
thrust a polished handle throught the lid to lift it. Then
men died by the thousands from the venomous fumed that
emanated from it."1

The palace of Balor was constructed by the Goban Saor

(Gaelic, "mouthy sawyer, or carpenter). He and his son
finished their construction for the this Fomorian but, "he
did not wish to let them go back (to Eirinn), for fear they
should make for another man a palace as good as his." While
the builders were on the topmost scaffolds, Balor ordered
the lower parts taken away, "for he wanted to let them die
on the top of the building." This might have been the end of
both carpenters, but the younger sawyer had developed a
friendship with a girl of the clan, and passing, she
suggested, "...It is easier to throw seven stones down than

1 Scherman, Ibid, p. 56.

 to put one up..." The young man was able to reasonthis out,
and soon he and his father began throwing stones to the
ground. Hearing their fall, Balor rushed out and ordered the
scaffolding replaced.

Knowing they were not out of danger, the Goban Saor

noted, "there is a crookedness in your work, and had I three
tools left at home, I would straighten this wall, so that
their would be no palace in the world comparable with this!
My tools are: Crooked against crooked; corner against
corner; and engine against deceit, and no man can bring them
back but your son!"

Hearing this, Balor allowed his son to voyage to Eirinn

where he approached the wife of Goban Saor with the key-
words. She immediately recognized them as a plea for help
and led the Fomorian lad to a deep carpenter's chest. She
asked the boy to retrieve the tools, and while he was bent
over, pushed him in and locked the chest. She then sent
word to Balor that his son was a hostage until young Goban
and old Goban arrived safely home.

The two sawyers were released with full pay, and

Balor's son returned. Surprisingly, the Fomorian asked his
departing guests to recommend a blacksmith "for putting
irons on his palace, except the Gloss (champion cow)." 2

The two departing "guests" suggested Gavidjeen Go.

When they arrived back in Eirinn, the Saors strongly urged
Gavidjeen Go to be careful in contracting with Balor
Beimann and accept nothing less than the Gloss as
compensation for his work. It was generally known that
this cow could fill twenty barrels with milk in a single day,
so the man who possessed her would be wealthy. Balor
consented to this agreement, knowing that the Gloss would
only follow where the magical bye-rope was given. Since he
did not give the rope to Mr. Go, Balor knew that the
champion would eventually return to his own barns.

2 Colum, Ibid, p. 535.

 Gavidjen Go was a practised blacksmith so he was
able to promise swords to those who minded his new cow.
One of these was Kian, son of Contje, who pledged his head
against the loss of the animal. Kian managed this for the
full day, but that evening, on returning her, was met by the
Laughing Knight, who ran out to Kian and said, "The smith is
about to temper your sword, and unless you are there to hold
it, there will be no power with it when you weild it."

Hearing this, Kian complied, but inside the smithery

he was asked, "Where is the Gloss?" Kian thought she stood
just outside the door, but rushing there he found the
"Knight" and the Gloss gone.

"Then you have forfeited your head! Lay it upon the

anvil that I may cut it off," demanded Go.

"Give me three days and it will be returned."

"I will allow that," said his adversary.

Kian afterwrds tracked the Gloss to the northwestern

corner of the land. Losing the trail at the edge of the ocean,
"he wandered up and down the shore, plucking his hair from
his head, in trouble after the Gloss." 3

Entirely at a loss, he noticed a man travelling on the

sea in a currach (half spherical hide-covered boat). Kian
called to him, and was soon confronted by Manaun MacLir,
one of the gods of the sea. Manaun was one of two
immortals in the Fomorian host, the other his father Ler,
the supreme god of the sea. The former god lived in the
deeps off the shores of the Isle of Man, but also had a land
residence on the island itself. It was said that he
sometimes harassed the Irish countryside, coming ashore on
foggy nights in the form of an animated triskelion. The
triskelion was three bent legs radiating from a common

3 Colum, Ibid, p. 536.

centre; it became a three-armed swastika, the current
symbol of the Isle of Man.

Fortunately for Kian, Manaun was allied with the

Tuathans and had little sympathy for Balor. When the quest
was explained, the sea-god offered transportation to Tory
Island in return for half of anything taken from the island,
excepting the Gavidjeen Gloss. Although he travelled in a
simple currach Kian found himself instantly transported to
his destination.

On the far shore he found the Fomorians eating raw

food, and being a culinary expert he welcomed them to his
fire and a new taste experience. These individuals went to
Balor Beimann, who hired Kian as tender of fire, cook and
story-teller to his court.
The two sons of Balor, in training as druid on another
island, had warned his father that his destiny was to be
killed by a son of his own daughter. As a consequence, Balor
had isolated her, and personally attended to providing her
with food. Since she was always in the presence of a
guardian woman, the Fomorian chieftain felt certain she
would never become impregnated. In his own interest,
Manaun had gifted Kian with an enchantment that allowed
him to open locks and shut them behind himself, knowing
this would give him access to the hidden treasure of his
rival. Noticing Balors unusal food delivery schedule, Kian
followed him and unlocked a door in the inner keep where he
found the two woman. He introduced them to his cookery
and even if the elder woman had not been mute, she
afterwards favoured the stranger. This was even more true
of Balor's daughter for in nine months "a child happened to
her." Discovering this Kian thought it might be wise to
resign from service. When asked why he was leaving Kian
would only admit: "It is because accidents have happened to
me since I came to this island." Not content with this,
Balor consulted one of his sons who was home on leave. The
lad was not certain what Kian meant but suggested, "your
story-teller, cook and fireman will give you sufficiency of
trouble."
 Overhearing them, Kian decided on an early departure
and went to his girl-friend, who agreed that he had little
choice. As a parting gift she gave him the byre-rope which
magically drew the Gloss after it as well as charge of their
infant son. THe Tuathan went immediately to the place
where Manaun had deposited him on the shoreline and
whistled down the wind, after which the god came "in an
instant". Balor was not far behind and Manaun advised,
"Make haste for Balor will try to drown us. Nevertheless,
have little fear for my magic is greater than his!"
Kian jumped into the currach, and the gloss followed
the rope. Bal;or used his eye to raise the sea behind them,
but Manaun countered by raising a hand which immedistely
calmed the sea before them. In his wrath Balor set fire to
the sea, but Manuaun threw asingle magical stone into the
waters and the fires went out.

On the Irish shore the sea god turned to Kian son of

Contje for half of the "treasure" of Tory Island. "I have
nothing but this boy," admitted the Tuathan, "and him I will
not divide but give to you entirely." "For this, thanks,"
returned Manaun, "this is a prize. Here is the champion who
will be known as Dul Dauna (Gaelic, the one who will cause
another to fall), and he will defeat Balor of the Evil Eye.
Among the Tuathans, this god-giant was later called Lugh.
Presumably he was about sixteen feet at maturity for this
was a later meaning of the word "lug". This word also
described a powerful but clumsy individual but the godson
of Manaun MacLir was hardly a clumsy oaf, this connotation
having arisen after the worshippers of Lugh were defeated
by a race known as the Anglo-Saxons.

These events seem to have occurred while Kian was

spying in Ireland on behalf of the Tuatha daoine. Lugh was
not only the foster-son of a god, but possessed many of the
"mortal powers", or magic, of his birth-father's people.
Because of this he was also named Sab Ildanach (Gaelic, the
stem of all arts). When the Tuatha daoine contemplated an
actual invasion they sent Lugh ahead as a scout. He went
the court of KIng Eochais at Tara, supposedly seeking
employment. In those days foreigners were not excluded,
but no one was admitted membership in the inner circle
unless he could add a unique skill to the court. The
doorkeeper, who barred Lugh's way asked the ground for his
admission. Lugh noted that he was a saer (Gaelic, sawyer or
carpenter), but the guardian assured him they had one in
residence. Well, suggested Lugh "I am a very good goban
(smith)." They also had an able goban. "A champion?" That
post was also filled. In turn Lugh offered to serve as a filid
(bard), baobh (magician), cupbearer, goldsmith, or cupbearer.
Told that the Firbolgs had an expert in all these formsa of
magic, Lugh responded finallyu with these words: "Go then,
warden to your king. Ask him if any stands within these
walls who is master of all these arts, for they are my
profession. If there is my equal, I will not insist on
admittance to Tara."

King Eochaid was overjoyed to add this well-favoured

man-god to his court, and afterwards created the post of
ard-ollam (chief poet) for him, declaring Lugh the chief
professor of all arts and sciences. Unfortunately, Lugh
afterwards abandoned this tribe and assisted the Tuatha
daoine.

In the legends, Lugh has been particularly noted as a

builder of chariots, a worker in metals, a medicine-man, a
poet and a composer of novel magical spells. He was later
declared the god of music since he was able to charm people
into sleep when he played on his harp. Among warriors he
was termed Lugh of the Long Arm because of his proficiency
with the spear and the sling, and it was rumoured that he
could defeat an entire army without assistance. He was
named the father of the mortal gods, in particular
Cuchulainn, who shared this last attribute. It may be
recalled that it was Lugh who carried a flesh-seeking
magic spear with him to Ireland from the islands of the
north.

These abilities were useful in the conquest of the

 Firbolgs and their confrontation with the Fomorians. The
latter situation seemed to have been regarded very
seriously, for legend says that the Tuatha daoine "summoned
every man, from the chief sorcerer and the cupbearer to the
smith and the charioteer, to contribute his special talent to
the confounding of the enemy." The druids assured the
chieftains that they would cast the twelve mountains of
Ireland against the enemy "and roll their summits against
the ground." Others of their profession said they would
arrange "three showers of sky-fire to rain upon the faces of
the Fomorian host," an act guaranteed to rob them of "two-
thirds of their strength". This battle also marked the first
use of the witch-bottle, which is still a tool of that craft.
This required obtaining urine, hair and nail-parings from the
enemy. These were placed in bottles and heated to cause
evaporation of the liquid. All during the process it was
considered that this act would "bind urine in their own
bodies" and terminate in the death of the giants when the
substance was entirely gone. The druids arranged a similar
fate for the horses of the enemy.

The first meeting of the Tuatha daoine and the

Fomorians was in the western sea off Ireland. The Dul
Dauna and his mentor, Manaun MacLir were at sea when they
saw the fleet of Balor Beimann sailing in their direction.
Lugh put a "ring" (the precursor of the telescope) to his eye
and saw his grandfather pacing the deck of his ship.
According to some accounts, Balor was killed on this
occassion when Lugh shot a "dart" into his eye. 4

Others say he survived to participate in the lands

battle at Sligo. This is probably the case, as he is known to
have felled King Nuada with his venomous eye. This
effective weapon of war was in part matched by the magic
"cauldron of the deep" which the Tuatha daoine had stolen
from Ler himself. It was employed by the "leech", or
medicine-man, named Diancecht who was said to have used
it to make fighting men of the dead, provided their heads

4 Padraic Colum, Ibid, p. 538.

 were intact and their spinal cords unsevered. Unfortunately
this process did not restore the souls of men, and thousands
were lost before Balor confronted Lugh. Challenged by "the
light and fearless one" Beimann opened his single gigantic
eye, "to look upon this babbler who converses with me." In
that instant a stone entered his eye with such force it
carried the organ through the back of Balor's skull." Lugh
seems to have been unaware that this act killed his
grandfather and fulfilled a druidic prophecy.

After that, the slaying of the giants was likened to

the fall of stars "as many as are in the heaven...as flakes of
snow, as the blades of grass beneath the herds." 5 THe
Fomorians were then beaten back into the sea, "from which
they never again emerged." In truth, they never did return in
force, and their passing is marked on the plain of Sligo by
numerous rock cairns and pillars. The plain itself is even
now referred to in Gaelic as "the Plain of the Pillars of the
Fomorians."

It will be recalled that Lugh and Nuada were not only the
creators of the world of men, but the boys who slew their
father and despoiled his undersea kingdom, transferring the
spirit of that land to the navel of Ireland. There is no
question that these lads and their kin were at the very least
close relatives of the Fomorians. They never liked to
emphasize this relationship. They claimed that their
progenitors were the Dagda and his wife Danu, or Dana
sometimes called Anu, Boann or Boyne. These actually
seem to have been the thinly-disguised matriarch and
patriarch of the Firbolgs, the god Don and the goddess
Domnu. Peter Ellis notes that Domnu name suggests a
“womb” or an “abyss of the sea,”and that “through the
various sagas and tales an eternal struggle is seen between
the Children of Domnu, representing darkness and evil, and
the Children of Danu, representing light and goodness.” The

5 Katherine Scherman,Ibid, p. 56 quoting The Second Battle of Mag

Tured from Ancient Irish Tales.
undersea island of An Domhain was said to contain not only
the Cauldron of Regeneration, but also Tech Duinn, “The
Arrival Place for (Dead) Men.” Under these circumstances it
is not surprising that the sea god Domh is often “equated
with the Dagda and Bilé.” The latter land god is of course
cognate with the Brythonic Bel or Belinos, and he is
frequently referred to as “the Father of the (land) Gods and
Men and a husband to Dana.” All of these seems to have been
a deliberate snow job and the Tuathans did what they could
to further distance themselves from the shape-changing
sea-people by stating that the latter were actually of the
House of Ler, which was ruled by the only remaining
immortal among the sea-gods with the help of his son
Manann mac Ler. The latter is often spoken of as the
boatman of Tech Duinn, the one responsible for ferrying men
in both directions to and from Ireland. In the old days, the
death-god was also seen as a life-god, whose charge was to
maintain a balance in the weight of souls inhabiting lands in
the east and the west. Those who died went west; those
slated for reincarnation were carried eastward on Manan’s
ship. Interestingly Bile is sometimes given Manan’s duties
especially with respect to the continental Gauls. All this
leads to the strong suspicion that the Dagda and Domh are
nothing more than alter-egos, a good and an evil face for the
creator-god. It is also true that Lugh is frequently pictured
as the boatman between the lands of men and the
Otherworld. Representations of him aboard a sailing ship,
with a sun orb leading his self-propelled craft, are among
the most frequent in Gaelic art. In the event that he is
given this role his antagonist, or altered form, is usually
identified as Cromm dubh, “the Bent Black One.”

It is said that the new invaders were called the

Tuatha daoine, because they were the “people of Danu.”
More exactly they were those”of” the goddess Aione or
Aine. In the Irish dialect these people were the Tuatha
danann, the folk of Ann, both variants of Danu. In the Middle
Irish tongue she was entitled Dan, and her name harks back
to da, the verb “to give.” Like the Dagda, the “giver of the
day,” she had an opponent in Domnu, whose descendant was
the Black Dannis, or Annis, a witch-like hag feared in
southern England. Her particular land residence was the
Paps of Anu, two breast-shaped mountains in County Kerry,
which point to her fecundity and position as the mother-
goddess and a fertility figure.

Any king of the northern Irish had to be ritually

married to this sovereign-goddess before he could claim
legitimacy. She had a number of local named as Danu
brighida, “the firey one,” and thus was sometimes called
bridd, “the bride,” or Brigit (in the latter days she was
canonized as Saint Brigid). She was also entitled the Bas-
finne indicating her role as a dark lady,the consort of Don,
and a part-time resident of the Otherworld. In this form
she was the triune goddess whose parts were Mhorrigan,
Badb or Mebd, and Macha. Like the Norse goddess Hel she
was often referred to as the “parti-coloured goddess.” In
earlier times, before the word tartan was available, this
term was the one most often used to describe the colourful
wearing apparel of the Celtic upper classes. She is also
Skadi, the Old Norse goddess of winter, who just might have
given her name to Skadilande, which the English called
Scotland. The Scandinavians suggested that Skadi was the
form assumed by Hel when she snowshoed the earth
accompanied by her vicious winter-wolves. Here it is
necessary to recall that the Norse often referred to the
Scots as the Hellr, “Hellers,” or “people of the goddess
Hel.”

There are as many Gaulish as Gaelic references to this

lady, but she is most often given as Brigando, from which
our word brigand. Among the Britons she was Brigantia and
there was a race of Celts named the Brigantines, situated in
the north of England and in east central Ireland, who
worshipped her as the goddess of love, hearth and home. In
this incarnation she was often spoken of as the daughter of
Dagda, but the fact of incest was never considered a crime
in royal families. It is said that the lady had three sons.
They in turn “had but one son among them,” whose name was
Ecne, “Poetic Knowledge.” It was the long-lived Tuan who
described the Daoine sidh as “gods,” and they might have
seemed so to the unfortunate Firbolgs.. Tuan said that they
came to Ireland “out of heaven,” bringing with them the
four treasures of their race. They were supposedly wafted
out of a cloud onto a stretch of land in western Connaught,
and when the vapours cleared, scouts from Tara discovered
them comfortably encamped at Moytura.

We are fairly confident they did not come down from

the North Star, in fact the name Tuatha and the fact that
they landed on the western coast of Ireland tells us almost
everything about their origin: In the Old Irish tongue tuath
meant a populace. This word is also seen in Welsh, tud, a
country or nation, in the Cornish tongue, tus, and in the
Brythonic dialect, tud. This form was also used by the
Gauls and indicated a nation. It is also a word related to
the Gaelic tir, land, which is the Latin terra, having the
same meaning. There is also the Gaelic adjective tuto ,
“well omened”, or “good,” or “left-handed,” turning in a
counter-clockwise direction. Think of Ireland, consider a
counterclockwise sailing from its shores, and you will
finish in the Labrador Basin. No other route is really
feasible since the Gulf Stream and the prevailing winds of
lower latitudes prevent any westward movement without
great manipulation of the sails. Finally the modern word
tuath is still connected with “people,” but now has special
reference to tenant farmers, rustics and “northerners.”

Further Tuath is the Anglo-Latin Tyle or Thule, a

“hidden place,” a name often visited upon mythic islands in
the Atlantic. In the years of post-medieval exploration the
Ultima Thule was Iceland, but it was never suggested that
this was the only “secret place” in the ocean. In the first
days the Tuatha daoine were routinely described as
“warrior-magicians,” but they were eventually defeated and
reduced to farming the most distant of the rockiest most
fen-ridden barrens in Ireland and Scotland.

Some researchers have connected the Tuatha daoine,

or danann, with the “Beaker People,” who arrived about the
year 2000 B.C., precisely fitting the mythological time-
frame. The big drinking pots, which they made, have been
found widely spread throughout Europe and these finds led
to the conclusion that they came to Britain out of one of the
continental Low Countries. Whatever their source the
newcomers brought a revolution in field monuments. Like
those before them, the Beaker Folk buried their dead, but
where the earlier islanders had preferred communal graves,
these people laid each individual in a solitary place and
raised perfectly circular barrows over the bodies. In really
stony country these round soil-covered barrows became
cairns.

These monuments are still discernible at 20,000 sites

throughout Britain, and clustered on the brows of a hill,
they are the most commanding feature in many parts of the
country. The skeletons of the invaders show that they were
taller, more round-headed, and possessed more sharply
defined features than the Firbolgs, who were a smaller,
more slender, somewhat “Mediterranean”type. As the
Beaker Folk were found buried with the equipment of
bowmen and with flint, copper or bronze daggers and stone
battle-axes, it has to assumed that they were a population
of warriors.

One archaeologist has said that “until, they became

merged with the islanders, had formed an élite and had an
influence out of proportion to their numbers.” It was never
claimed that the newcomers invented the cromleage or
“stone-henges,” but they did have a part in their
development. They were engaged in the second phase of the
development at Stonehenge, where they set up the famed
bluestone circles. They were also present during the main
period of construction as Avebury, where Beaker-style
burials have been found at the base of individual stones.
Most scientific researchers consider generalizations about
neolithic religions rash, but there is some suggestion that
the Firbolgs were mainly concerned with worshipping earth
and fertility deities while the Tuathans became more
involved with celestial divinities, “in particular with the
cult of the sun.” Stonehenge and Avebury stand in Wessex
but there are equally imposing circles in Brittany and
Scotland, although they were never very numerous, or as
elaborate, in Ireland.

In these places, pottery associated with the Beaker

people has also been found, although it is admitted that
many of these structures predate the usually datings at
about 1800 B.C. Wherever these newcomers set up camp,
their descendants were able to develop societies in which
bronze had little real utility. The warrior-magicians made
little use of copper and bronze, and it was they who took
the lead in developing the Cornish and Irish tin mines which
were fully operational by 1600 B.C. The main source of
their wealth was cattle, but they were also involved in
trading the metals they smelted, and Irish gold, on the
continent. By the beginning of the last millennium B.C.
bronze was freely available, and the whole appearance of
the countryside had altered from a wilderness with the
spread of villages and regular fields, cultivated with
ploughs rather than the wooden hoes and crooked sticks of
the past. After their defeat by the Milesians, about the
year 1000 B.C., they were renamed the Daoine sidh (which,
see), or “Side-hill people.” The Tuatha daoine were
afterwards legally restricted to the side-hills, forbidden
travel except at the Quarter, or Rent-paying Days, and were
not permitted to act as professionals or hold positions of
power.

MacManus has noted that they were not a single race

in historic times, but remnants of the Fomors, the Firbolgs,
and the Tuathans, "all ground down by rents and compulsory
toil." In the first century after the advent of Christ they
overthrew their bondage to the Milesians under the
leadership of Cabri Cinn Cait (the Cat-headed), a chief
living in Leinster. He managed to promote a secret
conspiracy that ended when the Aithech Tuatha, “Giant
Tuathans,” invited all of the Milesian royal family to a
great feast on a plain in County Galway. There the hosts
fell upon their guests and killed everyone present. Since
that time this place has born the name Magh Cro, the Bloody
Plain. From that time the "side-hill folk" ruled for five
years with Cinn Cait as their ard righ.

The Milesians later said of this period: "Evil was the

state of Ireland; fruitless her corn, fruitless her rivers,
milkless her cattle, penniless her fruit, for there grew in
those years but one acorn on the stalk." On the death of
Cabri, his son Morann the Just refused the crown and
suggested it be given to the Milesian heir. Feradach Finn-
feactnach, the “Fair-righteous one,” was thus recalled
from exile in Pictland, but his reign was as unhappy as that
of Caibri. Having tasted revolution and power the Aithech
Tuatha were unwilling to settle down and even the restored
chieftains were unhappy with their positions.

Under the next monarch, Fioacha of the White Cows,

some of the Milesian princes and the leaders of the
Tuathans banded together and overturned the throne,
replacing the monarch with Elim of Ulster, who by
supporting the working-class, held power for twenty years.
Eventually the Milesians recalled the son of Fiacha from
exile in Britain, rallied to him and killed Elim. Ironically,
the new king was entitled Tuathal Feachtmar, the
“Desired,” for it was he who fought 133 battles against the
Tuathans. In the end, he broke these tribes and scattered
them so widely they were never again a force in Gaelic
history. "These fugitive hill-dwellers, caught in twilight
and moonlight, by succeeding generations of Milesians,
coupled with the seemingly magical skills they exercised,
gave foundation for the later stories of enchanted folk,
fairies, living under the Irish hills."

T.W. Rolleston thinks that "Christian" historians have

been embarassed by the fact that Ireland was traditionally
conquered, and held by the overtly pagan Tuatha daoine.
Katherine Scherman represents this point of view:
"Between the Fir Bolg and Milesian (invasions) some
historians have inserted the invasion of the wholly mythical
Tuatha De Danann, investing the old Celtic gods with human
form and slotting them neatly into synchronized (and
presumably legitimate) history. Besides their conquest of
Ireland and the magic-ridden battles this gives rise to, the
De Danann participated in a series of romantic and heroic
adventures in which there was no dividing line between the
supernatural and the erathly, and in which unreality
approaches the absurd."2

Rolleston explains that such a race could not be

considered as progenitors of Christian Ireland: "They had to
be got rid of, and a race of less embarassing antecedents
substituted for them. So the Milesians were fetched (again)
from "Spain" (our italics) and endowed with the main
characteristics, only more humanized, of the people of
Dana."3 The sons of Miled were considered as "an entirely
human race" yet their origin was as problematical as that of
the Tutha daoine. They were led by King Miled, or Milus
(confering with the Gaelic "milidh", a champion), who is
represented as a god in inscriptions from ancient Hungary.
There he is said to be the son of Bile (the Gaelic "bil" or
"bile", the lips of the mouth, a good politician) and Bile is
identified as the god of Death. His counterpart in Gaul
(France) was Dis, corresponding with the Anglo-Saxon Teus,
whose name appears in Tuesday. The Romans identified Dis
as Dispater (the Father Dis) and Julius Caesar said this was
the god from whom all Gauls claimed descent. His name is
embodied in a number of compound words which suggest his
character, viz. disturbance, disaster, disapproval, dislike.
In some respects Nuada may be considered a death god, with
Lugh representing the life force, But Balor, the Lord of the
"ord", or hammer, is more closely identified with chaos and
the Land of the Dead.

TUATHAL, TUAITHAEL , from tuath + seal (from deiseil,

left-handed), left, northward, indicating misfortune; after
the fay-people known as the Tuatha daoine, originally the
word meant "good." A root may be su, turning toward the
left, following the left-handed path; wrong, awkward. "It is
not right to come to a house "tuathal", i.e. northward. Here
the word is used as the reverse of "deiseil" or sunward.
Witches come that way. It is a good rule to keep on the
west side of the road, and at all times to keep sunward of
unlucky people." In taking a drink when the liquid goes
tuathal this indicates that it enters the windpipe causing
choking, (Celtic Monthly, p. 163). See above entries for
associated words.

TUATHAL TEACHTMHAIR. Tuathal the “Legitimate,” High

King from 130 to 160 A,D, The father of Fithair and Dairine,
married to the bigamous Eochaid of Leinster. Their
predicament led finally to the infamous Boru Tribute.
Tuathal was a Connaughtman and during a rebellion his
mother fled to Britain where he was born. Returning to
Ireland he rose through the ranks to high-kingship and
created the new province of Meath, which became the
personal estate of the high-kings. Present day Meath and
Westmeath together make up about half of the former lands
of ancient Meath. The name has been suggested as derived
from the earlier Teuto-valos, “Ruler of the People.” The
conquests of this king have been equated with those of Mug
Nuadat who established rule over southern Ireland, and was
himself connected with the earlier god Nuada. In each case
the king was of divine origin, an eponymous deity of the
district he conquered. Rice says that Tuathal is ”one of the
legendary Goidelic conquerors of Ireland.” She suggests that
he “bears a name which is from the earlier Teuto-valos, the
“Ruler of the People.” The god Teus or Teutates was better
known in Gaul than in Britain leading to the theory that he
may be equated with the Romano-Gaullish Mars Toutates.
There is an inscription on Roman artifacts from Old Carlisle
equating this god with the semi-Brythonic Cocidius. All this
suggests that he is “one of the oldest and most powerful
Celtic deities,” who may have arisen on the Continent. He is
considered “the god of soldiers,” and was particularly
known in the northwest of Britain. “that he may have had
other names must not be overlooked... so Vitris and
Belatucadros may have been other names for this tribal god,
especially as dedications to these three deities largely
coincide (geographically).” He more certainly matches the
Gaelic ‘Ues or Hues, who was also entitled Hu.

TUATHANACH, farmer, rustic, peasant, husbandman,

agriculturalist, layman; tuathanacas, farming, tuath, the
common-folk, tuathlach, unlucky, left-handed. The Firbolg
ancestors of the Scots lived at Tara, in ancient Hibernia, a
place with associations that gave its kings prestige.
MacManus says this is location on the River Boyne is where
one finds, "the great mounds that had been the burial
chambers and temples for a Bronze Age People." In
particular he has noted the Brugh na Angus, or Dwelling-
place of the god Angus, patron of youth and free-love. He has
said that the early kings of Tara "were representatives of
the divinity that brought about agricultural increase (like
Odin and Aod), and their proper office was the performance
of rites that promoted fertility. The divine folk lived in the
Brugh. From it came the brides for the king's ritual
marriages..."

TUATH GAOTH. The North Wind, often regarded as a deity.

TUATHLACH, ominous, unlucky, awkward, left-handed.

Tuathach, a northern Highlander (and many were left-
handed).

TUATHROINN, Norway.

TUGHA, thatch, covering, Ir. tuighe, EIr. tuga, to cover. See

tigh, tuatha. Although there are now few remains of shrines
to tribal gods there are a few remains which suggest that
they were built to house idols and were placed amidst
groves of trees, near wells, sacred springs or the death
mounds of god-heroes. Traces of wickerwork were found at
Ballachulish, Argyllshire, Scotland. Popular tradition
suggests that these framing members were thatched. The
biennial thatching and un-thatching of shrines continued
until the present century. If a woman dropped her load of
roofing material this was considered unlucky and all that
had been done was torn down so that the shrine could be
rebuilt from scratch. In an early Irish tale feathers served
for thatch and the shrine was described as an entrance to
the Otherworld.

TUIGIN, TUGEN, tuig, to understand, the English gusto. The

poetic laurels, the poet's many-coloured mantle made of the
skins and wings of birds. This material was used as birds
were observed to be masters of cadence; thus it was
supposed that men gained the power to sing like birds. “Mog
ruith’s skin of the bull was brought to him and also his
enchennach (bird-dress) with it’s flying-wings. Then he
rose up, in company with the fire of the earth and flew into
the air and the heavens.”

TUIL, a flood, OIr. tuile, from the root tu, to swell, Eng.
thumb, tumid etc. OIr. ool, to abound, to flood, all, ale, EIr.
oll, great, thus tuille, more, t + oln, “much more.”

TUIL, AN, the World-Flood. 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 translated as the “Lady Caesar.” She was the
daughter of Bith, who is sometimes described as “a son of
Nodha.” It is said that Bith, Finntan and Ladra built an idol
in the form of a standing stone. This structure spoke to
them warning them that the land of their birth would be
submerged by a deluge and strongly suggested that they
construct a ship and sail away if they hoped to escape their
fate. The cromlech was unable to say exactly when
catastrophe might fall upon them so they sailed into the
ocean as soon as they could gather an expedition.

The planning may have been a little too hurried for it

is noted that “Bith’s venturesome daughter” left land with
“fifty fair damsels to solace her warriors three.” Ladhra
served as pilot to the ship which spent seven years on the
open sea before arriving in Ireland. Cassir’s chief advisor
was another lady named Barran, whose name is sometimes
given as Barrfhind, the “leader of the white-ones
(women).” Once landed, the expedition broke into three
camps each “serviced” by one of the three younger men.
Ladra was at first hurt by an unequal division which left
him with only seventeen “soul-mates,” but these proved
more than equal to his sexuality and he was soon reported
“dead from a surfeit of women,” the first man so recorded
in Irish history. The amazonian leader attached herself to
Finntann but a ballad-sheet (1913) tells us that these
people were ill-fated:

Bith died at the foot of his mountain,

And Ladra on the top of his height;
And Cassir by Boyle’s limpid fountain,
Ere rushed down the Flood in its might.

The spirit of the drowned men passed into the

mountains that now bear their name, but that of Cassir,
being most potent, became the astral-genius for the entire
island. In later mythology Banbha, literally, the “fat pig,”
is a name given to the land to suggest its productivity. The
uncapitalized Gaelic word also cites “land left fallow for a
year.” Note also that this “goddess” was, from time-to-
time, reincarnate as one or more of a triune, the other two
being Folta and Éiru. With her sisters this queen of
sovereignty met the Milesian invaders of Ireland and each
asked that her name be attached to the country, Each name
has been used in Irish literature but it is Éiru that was
finally adopted as the political name. Finntann was not
caught by the flood waters. A cautious man, he secretly
constructed and provisioned a tul-tunna or “flood-barrel”
which he anchored at the crest of the Irish mountain which
still bears that name. When he saw the waters closing
about him this “gentleman” quietly stole away from his
“wife” and...
 For a year, while the waters encumber
The Earth, at Tul-tunna of strength,
I slept, none enjoyed such sweet slumber
As that which I woke from at length.

In an alternate myth, Finntann shape-changed himself

into s salmon and so remained until the skies cleared.
However he managed survival, duplicity had its rewards, and
Finntann, the grandson of Nodha, having escaped his fate,
lived afterward, as a virtual immortal, at Dun Tulcha , in
southwestern Kerry. He lived for a very long time, once
commenting that he had passed one day through the woods
of west Munster and brought home the red berry from a yew
tree. He planted it and saw it grow to a size which allowed
“a hundred champions to recline beneath its foliage.” When
it died he had seven huge vats made from its wood. When
the hoops of the vats decayed from old age he made other
objects from the wood, until all was finally reduced to a
single wooden cup. At that, he outlived the cup which fell
into dust while he continued in ruddy good health.

Thousands of years later, Fintann was called to court

by Diarmuid mac Carroll to solve a question of the limits of
the Royal properties. When he travelled he brought with him
nine companies of direct descendants, and nine additional
companies of his close kin. Incidentally the name Finn-tann
translates as “the slender white one,” and this may be
descriptive of his condition on emerging from his long sleep
at sea.

Because these people were spoken of as the

descendants of Nodha, the writers of the Christian era
assumed that they were the “sons of the Biblical “Noah.”
These seemed to be reinforced by the myth that they came
to Ireland from a land named Tir-nan-Bas, which they took
to mean “the Land of Basques,” more-or-less equated with
modern Spain. It was, therefore, supposed that the folk of
the patriarch named Bith or Ith must have sailed out of the
Eastern Ocean, now known as the Mediterranean Sea. Nodha
is, of course, a form of Nuada (pronounced nood-a), the
twin-brother of the creator god Lugh (pronounced look-a)
and has no connections with Christian mythology. Bas is the
Gaelic word for “death,” so their origin was in “The Land of
the Dead, ” which traditionally lay on an “island”
somewhere in the Atlantic.

This interpretation makes their seven year journey to

Ireland more plausible than a cruise along the length of
Mediterranean. The Bas-breton, or Basques, probably
received their names from their war-like habits, as well as
from the fact that they claimed decent from the “Lords of
Death.” The place where Fintann’s folk settled was
ultimately named Munster and, as we have said, it was a
province in the south. The name is an englished form of the
Gaelic Muhan with the Old Norse ster ending. Earlier forms
were Mumu and Muma. The Munster kings only grudgingly
admitted to kinship with other people and only recognized
the high-kingship at Tara in the ninth century A.D. Munster
was itself divided into five principalities, reflecting the
ancient political divisions of the entire countryside. Later
it had two major divisions. There are several things that
separate Munster from all other places in Britain. First, it
had a proud association with the Bas-finn, or Bafinn, the
triune goddess of fate, who the Norse called the Val-kyra,
or the Nornr. Second , they had off their shores an island
named Tech Duinn, the staging ground of the dead, where all
the shades of the dead supposedly gathered before being
shipped out to the Otherword in the west. Finally, the
ruling house of Munster was Taigh Domh. “The House of
Don,” or “Doom.” In the ancient tales it is always Munster
that is represented as the primal world or place of origins.

Because it had this reputation every invader tried to

legitimize his landing by sending some part of his fleet to
these shores. Although the northerners said otherwise, the
kings of Munster always traced their descent from Lugaid
son of Ith a mariner who is said to have sailed to Ireland
eastward out of the Atlantic Ocean.

TUINE, terror, dread, alarm, confusion. Obs. tuinneamh,

Death, tuinnse, a fatal blow caused by Fate.

TUINNEAMH, obs. Death. See next.

TUINNEASACH, deathful, based on tuinneamh, death, cf.

tuinnidh, firm, hard, immovable, fixed in place.

TUIREADH, a dirge, a lamentation in song and verse, Ir.

tuireamh, dirge, a druid, the clergy. The root is tuirse,
sadness. ON. god Thor.

TUIREANN, “Tower of Angles.” This god, usually identified

as the son of Ogma and Etain, had children by the goddess
Bridd: viz. Brian, Iuchar and Iucharbha. His Clann Tuireann is
clearly identified as some foreign brood, for their very
name says, “people of Thor.” These are the out-dwellers
who occupied Eilean Tuir, or Thor’s Island, which is Torry
Island, northwest of Ireland. As this was the main Irish
redoubt of the bloodthirsty Fomorians they may equate with
early Norse pirates. Note also Turdulian or Turdentalian, a
resident of the old region of Tartessos in southern Spain.
This Celt-iberian area was said to be located about the
Baetis River immediately northwest of the Straits of
Gibraltar. These people were reputed to live beyond the
century mark and to be so wealthy they “used silver feeding
troughs and wine jars.” They may have been done in by the
Carthaginians or by some natural disaster.

In any event, the trading city of Tartessos disappeared

under circumstances reminiscent of Atlantis. His Irish
offspring, represented in the Clan Tuireann, was at odds
with Clan Cian. In the tale of which we speak, Lugh, the god
of the sun, is represented as the son of Cian Contje (the
Handy One). At that time in Irish history, Lugh had just
finished off his training under his foster-father Manan mac
Ler, and had returned from the western Land of the Living
with the Boat of Manan, which could travel anywhere on land
or sea, following the helmsman’s thoughts, and the magical
sword Fragarach, which could cut through any mail. Feeling
well-equipped to face the Fomorians he appeared before the
Tuatha daoine as “the rising of a sun on a summer’s day.”
At the next tribute-paying time, under Lugh’s leadership,
the Tuatahans attacked the tax-gatherers and sent their
heads back to the sea kingdom. Balor of the Evil Eye then
made ready his fleets, instructing his captains to make fast
to the island with cables, so that it could be towed into the
far north as soon as the Irish were defeated. Lugh was by no
means certain that he could prevail and lusted after
“certain magical instruments,” which he knew could help
his cause.

Nevertheless, the story says that Lugh sent his father

Cian into the northern lands to summon what allied might be
found. On his way into Ulster, near Dundalk, he met the
three brothers Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba, the children of
Tuireann. Knowing there was some antagonism with this
clan, Cian sensibly converted himself into a pig and joined a
wild herd rooting on the plain. The brothers, however,
recognized the father of Luigh, and Brian wounded him with
a cast of his spear. At that Cian changed back into human
form. Brian was pleased, saying, “I would liefer kill a man
than a pig,” But the mortally wounded god smiled in return
noting: “Better for you if you had slain a pig, for that
requires no payment of blood-money, and now you must pay
the eric demanded for the death of a man. Never shall
greater eric be demanded than that you will be asked to pay
by the avenger of my blood.” Thus the start of the life and
death cycle among men. Hoping to avoid the charge that they
had killed the god-giant with weapons, Brian and his kin
stoned Cian to death.

Shortly after Lugh passed across the plain where his

father lay dead, and the death-head cried out demanding
revenge. Lugh raised a cairn above the body and then went
to the High King demanding justice. The king agreed that
Lugh could have the three executed or demand an eric as he
pleased, and Lugh chose the latter, asking the sons of Thor
to bring back from distant lands seemingly common
objects: three apples from the Orient; the healing pig-skin
of King Tuis (the god Tyr); the spear of King Piscar; the
horses of King Dobhar; the magic pigs ofKing Easal of the
Golden Pillars (Gibraltar); the whelp of the king of Ioruaidh
(the Red Island); and the cooking spit of three women from
Fianchuibhe. Finally the three were to give three victory
shouts from the Hill of Miodchaoin in their own country.

The brothers bound themselves by oath to make this

restitution in order to clear themselves of guilt and avoid
the penalty promised by Cian. With infinite daring the three
adventurers went to the Mediterranean and eventually sailed
back to their homeland with everything needed except the
cooking-spit. It gradually became apprent that Fianchuibhe
was no normal island, but one beneath the western sea. To
get there Brian had to “borrow” one of the sea-helmets of
the Daoine mara. Once equipped he was able to descend to
the land of “thrice fifty sea-women,” and there seized the
golden spit that rotated over the fires of the sea. The
ordeal of the hill came last. Here the travellers encountered
the property owner, the giant Miodchaoin, who they had to
kill.

Mortally wounded by him, they gave their cries of

victory, but with these sounds surrendered their life-
spirits to Bile, the death-god, the alter-ego of Lugh.
Although dead, they returned to their father’s house where
the aged man-god pleaded for the loan of the rejuvenating
pig-skin (which represents the “pig-god” Cian) to restore
them. The implacable Lugh refused and all four of these
ancient “gods” perished.

TUIRGEIS, “Thor’s magic.” In latter day viking attacks,

the Norse had a great pirate-chief in Tuirgeis, who thought
of himself as the restorer of paganism, and potential lord of
the Irish. He came to the region with 120 warships, and ten
to twelve thousand warriors. To help deface Christianity he
took possession of Armagh, which had become Saint
Patrick’s See, and converted his church into a pagan temple,
making himself the high priest of the reinstated worship of
Odin and the Aesir. He further enraged the locals by making
his wife Otta, the enthroned “goddess” of the church at
Clommacnois, the second most holy site in Christian
Ireland. The foreigners who resided in Ireland regarded
Tuirgeis as their sovereign although he was hardly a king of
the Irish. His ablest Irish opponent was Niall the provincial
king of Ulster. About the year 845, he was taken prisoner
by the king of Meath, and afterward accidently (or
otherwise) drowned in Lake Owel. After his death the
Norsemen fought their way out of Ireland eventually exiting
in their longships from the old Fomorian campgrounds at
Sligo. After this the Danes became a force in the North Sea,
and in the words of the annalist (847 A.D.), these people and
the Old Norse “disturbed Ireland between them.”

TULACH, a hillock, from tu, to swell, Lat. tumor, tuber, a

swelling, Eng. thumb, a “swollen” finger.

TULACH BEALLTUINN, the Beltane Hill. The seats of festival

and fire in Scotland are well known, the best publicized
being Arthur’s Seat near Edinburgh, Kinnoul Hill, Perth;
Tulleybelton, the Tulach Beltane proper also in Perth. There
is Tinto near Lanark. Iona and Balquidder have such hills as
does Killin. There is Belling in Jed Water and Bellscairn
between Gala and Leader. Needslaw is on tableland between
Teviotdale and Liddesdale, while Tarbolton is situated in
Ayrshire.

TUR, a tower, anciently The Earth, sense, understanding,

intelligence, sagacity, genius, Ir. tur, a turret, MEng. tour,
the Lat. turris. the symbol of many of the northern clans in
Scotland. The god the Scandinavians called Tyr who likely
corresponds with the Gaelic Torr or Thor.

As we have noted the Island of Samme lies east of

Jutland, and may have been named for its location. On the
other hand it may have housed shamans, for the infamous
Teutonic Sword of Tyr has a connection with the place. Tyr,
or Tue, has his name preserved in the English day known as
Tuesday, and was the northern god of war, one whose
personality is embedded in our word tyranny. Tyr is thought
to have been omnipotent in the remote past, his throne
taken first by Thor, then by Odin, Niord and Frey. He was the
god of all left-handed men, having lost his right arm while
helping to chain the Fenris wolf within Hel's kingdom of
Nifhelheim.

Tyr's sword, entitled Tyrfing, or Tyr's finger,

supposedly fell into his hand from the sky. This is probably
a loose interpretation of actual events, since men are
known to have fashioned weapons from meteoric iron. Some
claim a dwarf was strong-armed into forging this weapon
which never rusted, cut through iron and stone, fought of its
own accord, and could not be sheathed until it tasted blood.
The maker was the first victim of this sword, but before
his death he declared that it would become "the bane of
men". Tyr bore the weapon until his death, and knowing its
dangers, had it buried with him on the island of Samme.
Unfortunately it was recovered from his sepulchre by Lady
Hervor a descendent of the "god" Odin. After several
"unfortunate" incidents, Tirfing came into the possession of
Herdreker, who unsheathed it without cause on three
occasions, and watched in horror as the weapon guided his
hand in cutting down his brother, King Harold of the Danes
and his own foster son. The interesting point here is that
the sword-bearer was "murdered by Scottish slaves who
carried off Tirfing (presumably to their own country)." It
was later returned to continental Europe where it was
incorporated into an altar dedicated to Tyr. Here it was
guarded by the female prophetesses known as the Norn, and
was hung so that the blade reflected the first rays of the
morning sun.

During the Roman conquest of Germany and Denmark,

the sword was taken by Roman soldiers who made a gift of
it to the prefect Vitellus, who was elected Emperor of Rome
on the weight of myth that surrounded the weapon. The
weapon was stolen from him by a German mercenary who
used it to kill Vitellus and win distinction for his legion.
Afterwards it was possessed by Attila the Hun, who
wielded it with terrible effectiveness. The Burgundian
princess Ildico slew Attila using Tirfing while he lay
intoxicated in his bed. After that the magical sword
disappeared for a long time, but was recovered by the Duke
of Alva, who used it to advance the military interests of
Charles V at Muuhlberg in 1547. The Franks afterwards
celebrated annual martial games
with the sword as a symbol of their paganism. but when
they accepted Christianity it was given for safe-keeping to
the archangel known as Saint Michael, who supposedly
carries it to this day.

Tyr was not the only "sword-god", Frey, the god of the
sun, had a similar weapon which fought of its own accord,
as did Irmin, the god of winter, and the Teutonic god known
variously as Er, Heru or Cheru. Frey was sometimes
referred to as Ingvi-Frey, or English Frey. This ancestor of
the Anglo-Saxon tribesman, who took a large part of
Britannia from the Celts, was said to be closely related to
their god Saxnot (from "sax", a sword) and identical with
Tyr. As Frey possessed a sister-consort called Freya,
Saxnot had a sister-goddess entitled Irena Saxa, literally
the Iron Sword.

The Celtic sword-god was Nuada, the king of the

Hibernian (Irish) race of warrior-magicians known as the
Tuatha daoine (pronounced tootha dannan). It is conceivable
that he may have carried Tyrfing home to the British Isles,
for it is said that, "the Tuatha De Danaan lived in the
northern isles of the world learning lore and magic and
druidism and wizardry and cunning until they surpassed the
sages of the arts of heathendom. There were four cities in
which they learned lore and science and diabolic arts, to
wit, Falias and Gorias, Murias and Findias. Out of Findias
was brought the Stone of fal, which was in Tara...Out of
Gorias the Spear that Lugh had...Out of Findias came the
Sword of Nuada. When it was drawn from its deadly sheath
no one ever escaped from it, and it was irresistible. Out of
Murias was brought Dagda's Cauldron. No company ever went
away from it unthankful (it supplied endless quantities of
porridge and ale).
 Nuada was very like Tyr having lost the use of his
sword hand when it was struck off in battle by the giant-
warrior Sreng. This left-handed god was deposed from the
kingship because "blemished" individuals were excluded by
law. He was restored to power when the white-smith
named Creidne fashioned an artificial hand for him. This
articulated device was constructed of silver and led to
Nuada's nickname, Nuada Airgead Lam, Nuada of the Silver
Hand.

Tyr was known as Ziu among the Saubians of Germany,

and their capital was at Ziusburg, the current city of
Augsburg. This people venerating a sword-god held great
sword-dances in his honour: "Sometimes the participants,
forming two long lines, crossed their swords, points
upward, and challenged the boldest among their number to
take a flying leap over them..." The sword-dances of the
Scots had similar intent.

Tyr or Irmin is, of course, the evil twin of the god

Odin, a deity sometimes identified as Uller, or with Odin's
twin-brother's Vili and Ve. While the kings of the gods was
on a long visit to earth, the winter-king, or kings, usurped
his throne in Asgard and even took liberties with his wife
Frigga. When Odin returned, order was re-established in the
chaotic kingdom, and the northern pagans equated this
victory with the annual conquest of summer over winter.
Until the last century, Sweden held grand processions,
known as the May Ride, in which a flower-decked May King
(Odin) pelted a fur-enveloped Winter King (Uller) until the
latter was put to flight. The first day of May is, of course,
the Celtic Beltane, a time still marked in a few places by
Maypole dances and the appearance of Odinesque figures
such as Green George, Jack-In-The-Green, the May King, as
well as Friggan "disguisers", for example the May Queen and
Maid Marion. The return of the parsimonious winter-god is
as certain as his annual defeat, and Uller invariably regains
full control of both heaven and earth at the time the Celts
called Samhuin.
 In passing, note that the Anglo-Saxon god Uller was
also known as Vulder, which corresponds with the German
Holler, a god who was the husband of the goddess Holda, who
owned the fields of earth, and covered them with thick
snows so that they would yield better crops with the
coming of spring. She corresponds with the Scandinavian
giantess Skadi, the former wife of Niord (north), and the
perfect mate for Uller, since she personified the cold of
winter.

The winter-death-war-sword gods were all alter egos

of Odin, Woden or Wuotan. Further, Odin was a mortal-god,
supposedly reincarnated in several semi-historical kings of
the north. According to one legend he led his people out of
Asia Minor in 70 B.C. when his country was severely pressed
by the Romans. As he migrated westward across Europe he
inadvertently conquered Russia, Germany, Denmark, Norway
and Sweden leaving a trail of progeny, and a son on the
throne of each new-found country. Arriving in Denmark he
established his capital city of Odensoe (Odin's Island),
which persists. He was more or less "welcomed" to Sweden
by King Gylfi, who allowed him to found the city called
Sigtuna. He established his major temple there, and was
worshipped as a god well into his old age. In his infirmity,
he assembled his followers and cutting his chest in nine
places, committed ritual suicide, which allowed him to
depart the earth and return to his native land, Asgard,
where he promised to await the coming of true believers in
his god-hood.

This tale is very close to that of the Celtic god-hero

Hu Gardarn (Hugh the Mighty). This Cymric deity came from
a place the Welsh referred to as Gwlad yr Haf, or summer
country, "a certain region of the east, perhaps Crimea."
According to George Borrow, Hu had to leave the Near East
because of overpopulation and the possibility of widespread
famine. After leading his race across many lands, this
Celtic god brought them at last to the islands of Britain, "a
country of forests in which bears, wolves and bisons
wandered, and of morasses and pools full of dreadful efync
or crocodiles (not an impossibility since the climate was
much warmer at the Thermal Maximum, 6,000 years in the
past)..." Hu found that the land was inhabited by "a few
savage Gauls" (the Brythonic branch of the Celtic language
group, also known as Britons). He subdued them and quickly
began real-estate development: "...shortly after the arrival
of Hu and his people the land became a smiling region,
forests being thinned, bears and wolves hunted down, efync
annihilated, bulls and bisons tamed, corn planted and
pleasant cottages erected. After his death he was
worshipped as the God of agriculture and war by the Cumry
and the Gauls. The Germans paid him divine honours under
the name of Heus, from which name the province of Hesse,
in which there was a mighty temple devoted to him... The
Scandinavians worshipped him under the name of Odin and
Gautr, the latter word a modification of Gardarn, or mighty.
The wild Finns feared him as a wizard and honoured him as a
musician under the name Wainoemoinen...Till a late period
the word Hu amongst the Cumry (Welsh) was used to express
God- Gwr Hu, God knows being a common saying. Many Welsh
poets have called the creator by the name of this creature,
amongst others Iolo Goch:

The mighty Hu who lives for ever,

Of mead and wine to men the giver,
The emperor of land and sea,
And of all things that living be,
Did hold a plough with his good hand,
Soon as the Deluge left the land,
To show to men both strong and weak,
The haughty-hearted and the meek,
Of all the arts, the heaven below
The noblest is to guide the plough.

Our writer has said that Hu Gardarn reminded him of

the Arabian creator-god Al Kader Hu, but George Borrow was
of Anglo-Saxon heritage, and Gaels are more likely to think
of their ancient "fire-god" Aod, Cei or Kay. Linguistically,
Aod and Hu are exact counterparts, variants within the
Celtic tongue. The ancient word "aod" is identified with
fire, perhaps because the chief magic of the northern gods
was their ability to produce swords such as the Tirfing. Hu
Gardarn is credited with teaching the native Celts the
various "arts of civilized life" including house construction,
the sowing and reaping of grains, the taming of animals, the
construction of wicker and hide boats, bee-keeping, wine-
making, swamp-drainage, the making of lutes and pipes, and
with introducing them to rhyme and verse, but he was
elevated to godhood for possessing the knowledge needed to
fuse metals. This allowed him to create tools for
agriculture and weapons of war, which combined with his
abilities at "moving armies in masses", made him an
unbeatable opponent.

Hu was a proper name taken up by many Welshmen as a

testimonial to the old pagan god. As a surname it was
written as Huon, a word used elsewhere when the Cymric-
speakers referred to the sun. Aod has similar variations,
thus men were once given names such as Aod Mac Aoid, the
equivalent of Hu ap Huon, either of which can be translated
into English as Hugh Machugh or Hugh Hughsson. The Welsh
Hu has a close counterpart in the Anglo-Norman (Old French)
Hue, which is the nominative case of Huon. The modern
French equivalent is Hugues and the German, Hugo. The
modern Italian form is Ugo, derived from the Latin Odo.

The name Aod has been described by R.R. MacIan as one

"so peculiarly Celtic as to have greatly puzzled
orthographers, who anciently were accustomed to use the
letter Y as best indicating the sound." The issue of
pronunciation has never been resolved, which explains the
great variety of "englished" spellings for Mhac Aoid or
MacAoidh: Maccaa, Maccaw, Maccay, Macgaaa, Macgaw,
Macgee, Macghee, Mackee, Mackie, Macque, Macquey,
Macquoid, and of course, the most usual form Mackay.

There is no question that the original Aod was a

"druidh", or magician, one of the ancient "samans". When the
world was new, men supposed that the creator-god was a
disinterested party, who had set the spheres in motion, and
then gone on his way. They occasionally attempted to get
the attention of this Oolaithir, or Allfather, through acts of
simple magic, for example, shooting flaming arrows into
the sky to gain an extra ration of heat and light from the
sun. Again, they might flap a wet rag in the air hoping to
generate a larger storm, or perform some other sympathetic
act, but usually with indifferent results. It was observed
that the king of the universe was fickle, rationing the sun
according to his own timetable, and delivering up storms of
water and wind according to unpredictable whims.

TURADH, dry weather, food without condiment, related to

tir, dry land. See various entries under Tir.

TURLACH, an extensive fire, a round lump, a squat person,

see torr. Turlock, a lake that dries in the summer season.

TURRABAN, TURRAMAN, the rocking of the body following

some metaphysical internal rhythm, nodding, grief. Thus
turra-chadal, a “nodding sleep,” drowsiness at the point of
slumber.

TURRAG, an accident, turradh, surprise, being taken

unawares,

TURRAM, a soft sound, a murmur, cf. toirm, torrunn.

TURUS-CUAIN, ocean voyage. One of the chief forms of old

Gaelic literature.

TUS. the beginning of space and time. Tus-gag, the Beginning

Gap.

TUSGAIRE. fiction, tusgarnach, libeller, story-teller.

TUT, a quiet breaking of wind, a fart, stink, a stench. Allied

to toit, fumes, smoke. Not tuithan, a slut. And see next.

TUTACH, see dudach, the Devil, tutag, expressive of cold,

tutair, stinker, dunghill.
1.Bulfinch, Thomas, Bulfinch's Mythology (New York)
1913, p. 356.

2.Scherman, Katherine, The Flowering Of Ireland

(Boston) 1981, p. 235.
3.Rolleston, T.W., Celtic Myths and Legends (New
York) 1990, p. 138.