--- title: Firbolgs and Third Cycle of the Fomoroh. — Early Bardic Literature, Ireland. · full text with trees · page 2 description: Firbolgs and Third Cycle of the Fomoroh., «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: 1525 B.C. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/10/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/) / Firbolgs and Third Cycle of the Fomoroh. # Firbolgs and Third Cycle of the Fomoroh. · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/10/) **2** [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/10/page/3/) Lu Lamfada was the patron god of Cuculain.[60](../../60/ "tree and pragmatics") He was surnamed Ioldana, as the source of the sciences, and represented the Greek Apollo.[61](../../61/ "tree and pragmatics") The latter was argurgurotoxos \[Transcriber's Note: Greek in the original\], but Lu was a sling bearing god.[62](../../62/ "tree and pragmatics") Of Fomorian descent on the mother's side, he joined his father's people, the Tuatha De Danan, in the great war against the Fomoroh.[63](../../63/ "tree and pragmatics") He is principally celebrated for his oppression of the sons of Turann, in vengeance for the murder of his father.[64](../../64/ "tree and pragmatics") ANGUS OG, (circa 1500 B.C.)[65](../../65/ "tree and pragmatics") LU LAMFADA, (circa 1500 B.C.) son of son of THE DAGDA, (Zeus) Cian, son of son of Elathan, Diancect, (god the healer) son of son of Dela, Esric, son of son of Ned, Dela, son of son of Indaei, Ned, son of son of Indaei, son of ALLDAEI.[66](../../66/ "tree and pragmatics") Amongst other Irish gods was Bove Derg, who dwelt invisible in the Galtee mountains, and in the hills above Lough Derg.[67](../../67/ "tree and pragmatics") The transformed children alluded to in Vol. I. were his grand-children.[68](../../68/ "tree and pragmatics") It was his goldsmith Len, who gave its ancient name to the Lakes of Killarney, Locha Lein.[69](../../69/ "tree and pragmatics") Here by the lake he worked, surrounded by rainbows and showers of fiery dew.[70](../../70/ "tree and pragmatics") Mananan was the god of the sea, of winds and storms, and most skilled in magic lore.[71](../../71/ "tree and pragmatics") He was friendly to Cuculain, and was invoked by seafaring men.[72](../../72/ "tree and pragmatics") He was called the Far Shee of the promontories.[73](../../73/ "tree and pragmatics") BOVE DERG (circa 1500 B.C.)[74](../../74/ "tree and pragmatics") MANANAN (circa 1500 B.C.) son of son of Eocaidh Garf, Alloid, son of son of Duach Temen, Elathan, son of son of Bras, Dela, son of son of Dela, Ned, son of son of Ned, Indaei, son of son of Indaei, son of ALLDAEI.[75](../../75/ "tree and pragmatics") The Tuatha De Danan maybe counted literally by the hundred, each with a distinct history, and all descended from Alldaei.[76](../../76/ "tree and pragmatics") From Alldaei the pedigree runs back thus:--[77](../../77/ "tree and pragmatics") Alldaei son of Tath, son of Tabarn, son of Enna, son of Baath, son of Ebat, son of Betah, son of Iarbanel, son of NEMEDH (circa 1700 B.C.)[78](../../78/ "tree and pragmatics") Nemedh, as I have said, forms one of the great epochs in the mythological record.[79](../../79/ "tree and pragmatics") As will be seen, he and the earlier Partholan have a common source:--[80](../../80/ "tree and pragmatics") NEMEDH son of Sera, son of Pamp, son of Tath, PARTHOLAN (2000 B.C.) son of son of Sera, son of Sru, son of Esru, son of Pramant.[81](../../81/ "tree and pragmatics") The connection between Keasair, the earliest of the Irish gods, and the rest of the cycle, I have not discovered, but am confident of its existence.[82](../../82/ "tree and pragmatics") How this divine cycle can be expunged from the history of Ireland I am at a loss to see.[83](../../83/ "tree and pragmatics") The account which a nation renders of itself must, and always does, stand at the head of every history.[84](../../84/ "tree and pragmatics") How different is this from the history and genealogy of the Greek gods which runs thus:--[85](../../85/ "tree and pragmatics") The Olympian gods, Titans, Physical entities, Nox, Chaos, &c.[86](../../86/ "tree and pragmatics") The Greek gods, undoubtedly, had a long ancestry extending into the depths of the past, but the sudden advent of civilisation broke up the bardic system before the historians could become philosophical, or philosophers interested in antiquities.[87](../../87/ "tree and pragmatics") But the Irish history corrects our view with regard to other matters connected with the gods of the Aryan nations of Europe also.[88](../../88/ "tree and pragmatics") All the nations of Europe lived at one time under the bardic and druidic system, and under that system imagined their gods and elaborated their various theogonies, yet, in no country in Europe has a bardic literature been preserved except in Ireland, for no thinking man can believe Homer to have been a product of that rude type of civilisation of which he sings.[89](../../89/ "tree and pragmatics") This being the case, modern philosophy, accounting for the origin of the classical deities by guesses and \_a priori\_ reasonings, has almost universally adopted that explanation which I have, elsewhere, called Wordsworthian, and which derives them directly from the imagination personifying the aspects of nature.[90](../../90/ "tree and pragmatics") "In that fair clime, the lonely herdsman, stretched On the soft grass through half a summer's day, With music lulled his indolent repose, And in some fit of weariness if he, When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear A distant strain far sweeter than the sounds Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetched, Even from the blazing chariot of the sun, A beardless youth who touched a golden lute And filled the illumined groves with ravishment-- \*\*\* "Sunbeams upon distant hills, Gliding apace with shadows in their train, Might, with small help from fancy, be transformed Into fleet oreads, sporting visibly."[91](../../91/ "tree and pragmatics") This is pretty, but untrue.[92](../../92/ "tree and pragmatics") In all the ancient Irish literature we find the connection of the gods, both those who survived into the historic times, and those whom they had dethroned, with the raths and cairns perpetually and almost universally insisted upon.[93](../../93/ "tree and pragmatics") The scene of the destruction of the Firbolgs will be found to be a place of tombs, the metropolis of the Fomorians a place of tombs, and a place of tombs the sacred home of the Tuatha along the shores of the Boyne.[94](../../94/ "tree and pragmatics") Doubtless, they are represented also as dwelling in the hills, lakes, and rivers, but still the connection between the great raths and cairns and the gods is never really forgotten.[95](../../95/ "tree and pragmatics") When the floruit of a god has expired, he is assigned a tomb in one of the great tumuli.[96](../../96/ "tree and pragmatics") No one can peruse this ancient literature without seeing clearly the genesis of the Irish gods, \_videlicet\_ heroes, passing, through the imagination and through the region of poetic representation, into the world of the supernatural.[97](../../97/ "tree and pragmatics") When a king died, his people raised his ferta, set up his stone, and engraved upon it, at least in later times, his name in ogham.[98](../../98/ "tree and pragmatics") They celebrated his death with funeral lamentations and funeral games, and listened to the bards chanting his prowess, his liberality, and his beauty.[99](../../99/ "tree and pragmatics") In the case of great warriors, these games and lamentations became periodical.[100](../../100/ "tree and pragmatics") It is distinctly recorded in many places, for instance in connection with Taylti, who gave her name to Taylteen and Garman, who gave her name to Loch Garman, now Wexford, and with Lu Lamfada, whose annual worship gave its name to the Kalends of August.[101](../../101/ "tree and pragmatics") Gradually, as his actual achievements became more remote, and the imagination of the bards, proportionately, more unrestrained, he would pass into the world of the supernatural.[102](../../102/ "tree and pragmatics") Even in the case of a hero so surrounded with historic light as Cuculain we find a halo, as of godhood, often settling around him.[103](../../103/ "tree and pragmatics") His gray warsteed had already passed into the realm of mythical representation, as a second avatar of the Liath Macha, the grey war-horse of the war-goddess Macha.[104](../../104/ "tree and pragmatics") This could be believed, even in the days when the imagination was controlled by the annalists and tribal heralds.[105](../../105/ "tree and pragmatics") The gods of the Irish were their deified ancestors.[106](../../106/ "tree and pragmatics") They were not the offspring of the poetic imagination, personifying the various aspects of nature.[107](../../107/ "tree and pragmatics") Traces, indeed, we find of their influence over the operations of nature, but they are, upon the whole, slight and unimportant.[108](../../108/ "tree and pragmatics") From nature they extract her secrets by their necromantic and magical labours, but nature is as yet too great to be governed and impelled by them.[109](../../109/ "tree and pragmatics") The Irish Apollo had not yet entered into the sun.[110](../../110/ "tree and pragmatics") Like every country upon which imperial Rome did not leave the impress of her genius, Ireland, in these ethnic times, attained only a partial unity.[111](../../111/ "tree and pragmatics") The chief king indeed presided at Tara, and enjoyed the reputation and emoluments flowing to him on that account, but, upon the whole, no Irish king exercised more than a local sovereignty; they were all reguli, petty kings, and their direct authority was small.[112](../../112/ "tree and pragmatics") This being the case, it would appear to me that in the more ancient times the death of a king would not be an event which would disturb a very extensive district, and that, though his tomb might be considerable, it would not be gigantic.[113](../../113/ "tree and pragmatics") Now on the banks of the Boyne, opposite Rosnaree, there stands a tumulus, said to be the greatest in Europe.[114](../../114/ "tree and pragmatics") It covers acres of ground, being of proportionate height.[115](../../115/ "tree and pragmatics") The earth is confined by a compact stone wall about twelve feet high.[116](../../116/ "tree and pragmatics") The central chamber, made of huge irregular pebbles, is about twenty feet from ground to roof, communicating with the outer air by a flagged passage.[117](../../117/ "tree and pragmatics") Immense pebbles, drawn from the County of Antrim, stand around it, each of which, even to move at all, would require the labour of many men, assisted with mechanical appliances.[118](../../118/ "tree and pragmatics") It is, of course, impossible to make an accurate estimate of the expenditure of labour necessary for the construction of such a work, but it would seem to me to require thousands of men working for years.[119](../../119/ "tree and pragmatics") Can we imagine that a petty king of those times could, after his death, when probably his successor had enough to do to sustain his new authority, command such labour merely to provide for himself a tomb.[120](../../120/ "tree and pragmatics") If this tomb were raised to the hero whose name it bears immediately after his death, and in his mundane character, he must have been such a king as never existed in Ireland, even in the late Christian times.[121](../../121/ "tree and pragmatics") Even Brian of the Tributes himself, could not have commanded such a sepulture, or anything like it, living though he did, probably, two thousand years later than that Eocaidh Mac Elathan, whenever he did live.[122](../../122/ "tree and pragmatics") There is a \_nodus\_ here needing a god to solve it.[123](../../123/ "tree and pragmatics") Returning now to what would most likely take place after the interment of a hero, we may well imagine that the size of his tomb would be in proportion to the love which he inspired, where no accidental causes would interfere with the gratification of that feeling.[124](../../124/ "tree and pragmatics") Of one of his heroes, Ossian, sings--[125](../../125/ "tree and pragmatics") "We made his cairn great and high Like a king's."[126](../../126/ "tree and pragmatics") After that there would be periodical meetings in his honour, the celebration of games, solemn recitations by bards, singing his aristeia \[Transcriber's Note: Greek in the original\].[127](../../127/ "tree and pragmatics") Gradually the new wine would burst the old bottles.[128](../../128/ "tree and pragmatics") The ever-active, eager-loving imagination would behold the champion grown to heroic proportions, the favourite of the gods, the performer of superhuman feats.[129](../../129/ "tree and pragmatics") The tomb, which was once commensurate with the love and reverence which he inspired, would seem so now no longer.[130](../../130/ "tree and pragmatics") The tribal bards, wandering or attending the great fairs and assemblies, would disperse among strangers and neighbours a knowledge of his renown.[131](../../131/ "tree and pragmatics") In the same cemetery or neighbourhood their might be other tombs of heroes now forgotten, while he, whose fame was in every bardic mouth in all that region, was honoured only with a tomb no greater than theirs.[132](../../132/ "tree and pragmatics") The mere king or champion, grown into a topical hero, would need a greater tomb.[133](../../133/ "tree and pragmatics") [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/10/) **2** [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg8109/10/page/3/) - ← 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