Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

CHAPTER III: THE IRISH INVASION MYTHS 85presiding deities of science and poetry. This is not a popular idea;it is the product of the Celtic, the Aryan imagination, inspiredby a strictly intellectual conception. The common people, whorepresented mainly the Megalithic element in the population,appear to have conceived their deities as earth-powers—deiterreni, as they are explicitly called in the eighth-century “Bookof Armagh” 80 —presiding, not over science and poetry, but ratheragriculture, controlling the fecundity of the earth and water, anddwelling in hills, rivers, and lakes. In the bardic literature theAryan idea is prominent; the other is to be found in innumerablefolk-tales and popular observances; but of course in each case aconsiderable amount of interpenetration of the two conceptions [105]is to be met with—no sharp dividing line was drawn betweenthem in ancient times, and none can be drawn now.The Treasures of the DanaansTuan mac Carell says they came to Ireland “out of heaven.”This is embroidered in later tradition into a narrative telling howthey sprang from four great cities, whose very names breathe offairydom and romance—Falias, Gorias, Finias, and Murias. Herethey learned science and craftsmanship from great sages one ofwhom was enthroned in each city, and from each they broughtwith them a magical treasure. From Falias came the stone calledthe Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, on which the High-Kings ofIreland stood when they were crowned, and which was supposedto confirm the election of a rightful monarch by roaring underhim as he took his place on it. The actual stone which was soused at the inauguration of a reign did from immemorial timesexist at Tara, and was sent thence to Scotland early in the sixthcentury for the crowning of Fergus the Great, son of Erc, whobegged his brother Murtagh mac Erc, King of Ireland, for theloan of it. An ancient prophecy told that wherever this stonewas, a king of the Scotic (i.e., Irish-Milesian) race should reign.80 Meyer and Nutt, “Voyage of Bran,” ii. 197.