Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER III: THE IRISH INVASION MYTHS 113The three kings and three queens of the Danaans, with manyof their people, are slain, and the children of Miled—the lastof the mythical invaders of Ireland—enter upon the sovranty ofIreland. But the People of Dana do not withdraw. By theirmagic art they cast over themselves a veil of invisibility, whichthey can put on or off as they choose. There are two Irelandshenceforward, the spiritual and the earthly. The Danaans dwellin the spiritual Ireland, which is portioned out among them bytheir great overlord, the Dagda. Where the human eye can seebut green mounds and ramparts, the relics of ruined fortresses orsepulchres, there rise the fairy palaces of the defeated divinities;there they hold their revels in eternal sunshine, nourished by themagic meat and ale that give them undying youth and beauty; [137]and thence they come forth at times to mingle with mortal menin love or in war. The ancient mythical literature conceives themas heroic and splendid in strength and beauty. In later times, andas Christian influences grew stronger, they dwindle into fairies,the People of the Sidhe; 110 but they have never wholly perished;to this day the Land of Youth and its inhabitants live in theimagination of the Irish peasant.The Meaning of the Danaan MythAll myths constructed by a primitive people are symbols, and ifwe can discover what it is that they symbolise we have a valuableclue to the spiritual character, and sometimes even to the history,of the people from whom they sprang. Now the meaning of theDanaan myth as it appears in the bardic literature, though it hasundergone much distortion before it reached us, is perfectly clear.The Danaans represent the Celtic reverence for science, poetry,and artistic skill, blended, of course, with the earlier conceptionof the divinity of the powers of Light. In their combat with theFirbolgs the victory of the intellect over dulness and ignorance isplainly portrayed—the comparison of the heavy, blunt weapon110 Pronounced “Shee.” It means literally the People of the [Fairy] Mounds.