Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER III: THE IRISH INVASION MYTHS 81in Ireland; and, faithful to any custom, I went the rounds of myabode when I returned into the lands of Ulster, at the times oldage and wretchedness came upon me. For it was always therethat my transformations took place, and that is why I went backthither to await the renewal of my body.”Tuan then goes on to tell how Semion son of Stariat settled inIreland, from whom descended the Firbolgs and two other tribeswho persisted into historic times. Again old age comes on, hisstrength fails him, and he undergoes another transformation; hebecomes “a great eagle of the sea,” and once more rejoices inrenewed youth and vigour. He then tells how the People of Danacame in, “gods and false gods from whom every one knows theIrish men of learning are sprung.” After these came the Sons ofMiled, who conquered the People of Dana. All this time Tuankept the shape of the sea-eagle, till one day, finding himselfabout to undergo another transformation, he fasted nine days;“then sleep fell upon me, and I was changed into a salmon.”He rejoices in his new life, escaping for many years the snaresof the fishermen, till at last he is captured by one of them andbrought to the wife of Carell, chief of the country. “The womandesired me and ate me by herself, whole, so that I passed intoher womb.” He is born again, and passes for Tuan son of Carell;but the memory of his pre-existence and all his transformationsand all the history of Ireland that he witnessed since the days ofPartholan still abides with him, and he teaches all these things tothe Christian monks, who carefully preserve them.This wild tale, with its atmosphere of grey antiquity and ofchildlike wonder, reminds us of the transformations of the WelshTaliessin, who also became an eagle, and points to that doctrine [101]of the transmigration of the soul which, as we have seen, hauntedthe imagination of the Celt.We have now to add some details to the sketch of the successivecolonisations of Ireland outlined by Tuan mac Carell.The Nemedians