Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER III: THE IRISH INVASION MYTHS 103sailed in it and went without oar or sail, the steed Aonbarr, whichcould travel alike on sea or land, and the sword named TheAnswerer, which no armour could resist. White-crested waveswere called the Horses of Mananan, and it was forbidden (tabu)for the solar hero, Cuchulain, to perceive them—this indicatedthe daily death of the sun at his setting in the western waves.Mananan wore a great cloak which was capable of taking onevery kind of colour, like the widespread field of the sea aslooked on from a height; and as the protector of the island ofErin it was said that when any hostile force invaded it they heardhis thunderous tramp and the flapping of his mighty cloak as hemarched angrily round and round their camp at night. The Isleof Man, seen dimly from the Irish coast, was supposed to be thethrone of Mananan, and to take its name from this deity. [126]The Goddess DanaThe greatest of the Danaan goddesses was Dana, “mother ofthe Irish gods,” as she is called in an early text. She was daughterof the Dagda, and, like him, associated with ideas of fertilityand blessing. According to d'Arbois de Jubainville, she wasidentical with the goddess Brigit, who was so widely worshippedin Celtica. Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba are said to have been hersons—these really represent but one person, in the usual Irishfashion of conceiving the divine power in triads. The name ofBrian, who takes the lead in all the exploits of the brethren, 98 is aderivation from a more ancient form, Brenos, and under this formwas the god to whom the Celts attributed their victories at theAllia and at Delphi, mistaken by Roman and Greek chroniclersfor an earthly leader.The MorriganThere was also an extraordinary goddess named theMorrigan, 99 who appears to embody all that is perverse and98 See p. 114.99 I cannot agree with Mr. O'Grady's identification of this goddess with Dana,though the name appears to mean “The Great Queen.”