Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER IV: THE EARLY MILESIAN KINGS 123for his brutality. When the victory over the Danaans was securethe two remaining brothers turned to the Druid Amergin for ajudgment as to their respective titles to the sovranty. Eremonwas the elder of the two, but Eber refused to submit to him. ThusIrish history begins, alas! with dissension and jealousy. Amergindecided that the land should belong to Eremon for his life, andpass to Eber after his death. But Eber refused to submit to theaward, and demanded an immediate partition of the new-wonterritory. This was agreed to, and Eber took the southern halfof Ireland, “from the Boyne to the Wave of Cleena,” 115 whileEremon occupied the north. But even so the brethren could notbe at peace, and after a short while war broke out between them.Eber was slain, and Eremon became sole King of Ireland, whichhe ruled from Tara, the traditional seat of that central authoritywhich was always a dream of the Irish mind, but never a realityof Irish history.Tiernmas and Crom CruachOf the kings who succeeded Eremon, and the battles theyfought and the forests they cleared away and the rivers and lakesthat broke out in their reign, there is little of note to recordtill we come to the reign of Tiernmas, fifth in succession fromEremon. He is said to have introduced into Ireland the worship of [149]Crom Cruach, on Moyslaught (The Plain of Adoration 116 ), andto have perished himself with three-fourths of his people whileworshipping this idol on November Eve, the period when thereign of winter was inaugurated. Crom Cruach was no doubt asolar deity, but no figure at all resembling him can be identifiedamong the Danaan divinities. Tiernmas also, it is said, foundthe first gold-mine in Ireland, and introduced variegated coloursinto the clothing of the people. A slave might wear but onecolour, a peasant two, a soldier three, a wealthy landowner four,115Cleena (Cliodhna) was a Danaan princess about whom a legend is toldconnected with the Bay of Glandore in Co. Cork. See p. 127.116 See p. 85.