Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

84 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[104]We now come to by far the most interesting and important ofthe mythical invaders and colonisers of Ireland, the People ofDana. The name, Tuatha De Danann, means literally “the folkof the god whose mother is Dana.” Dana also sometimes bearsanother name, that of Brigit, a goddess held in much honour bypagan Ireland, whose attributes are in a great measure transferredin legend to the Christian St. Brigit of the sixth century. Hername is also found in Gaulish inscriptions as “Brigindo,” andoccurs in several British inscriptions as “Brigantia.” She wasthe daughter of the supreme head of the People of Dana, thegod Dagda, “The Good.” She had three sons, who are said tohave had in common one only son, named Ecne—that is to say,“Knowledge,” or “Poetry.” 79 Ecne, then, may be said to be thegod whose mother was Dana, and the race to whom she gaveher name are the clearest representatives we have in Irish mythsof the powers of Light and Knowledge. It will be rememberedthat alone among all these mythical races Tuan mac Carell gaveto the People of Dana the name of “gods.” Yet it is not as godsthat they appear in the form in which Irish legends about themhave now come down to us. Christian influences reduced themto the rank of fairies or identified them with the fallen angels.They were conquered by the Milesians, who are conceived as anentirely human race, and who had all sorts of relations of loveand war with them until quite recent times. Yet even in the laterlegends a certain splendour and exaltation appears to invest thePeople of Dana, recalling the high estate from which they hadbeen dethroned.The Popular and the Bardic ConceptionsNor must it be overlooked that the popular conception of theDanaan deities was probably at all times something differentfrom the bardic and Druidic, or in other words the scholarly,conception. The latter, as we shall see, represents them as the79 The science of the Druids, as we have seen, was conveyed in verse, andthe professional poets were a branch of the Druidic Order.