divine descents of the Munster princes.[1] They give the descent “Derg Dergthine, son of Nuada Argetlamh, son of Lug mac Edlenn,” and are confirmed by the early poem on “Mosaulom” (Oilioll Aulom) where Daig Dergthine, son of Nuada Aicnech Luigthine, son of Lug Feidlech,” is given. This contradicts the more usual Irish pedigree of Lug as son of Cian, and corroborates the Welsh by introducing Nuada. As we shall see, the close connection of Lug and Nuada is important to the understanding of the “marriage myth” of Tailltiu.
There are apparently two “foundation legends” fused into the story of Tailltiu. One[2] seems to have no Milesian affinities. Eochaid, son of Dua, king of Spain, ordered his subjects to cut down the wood of Cluan, clearing the plain,[3] in honour of his wife Tailltiu. Three rath builders avoided conscription, and the queen demanded their lives. The king spared them on condition of each building a rath in one of the Fir Bolg states, the heritages of Gann, Genann and Sengann; one of the earthworks was Nas, elsewhere connected with Lug and his wife, its namesake.
The second[4] compromises between the gods of the hostile races and shows the simpler story in the course of transfor-
- ↑ Urard Mac Coisi’s poem calls Lug “Son of the Dagda” (Irish Myth. Cycle, p. 98); for Poem of Mosaulum see ed. Kuno Meyer, Todd Lee. Ser. R.I.Acad, xvi. p. 29. For the pedigrees, see “Miscellany of the Celtic Soc.” (Corca Laidhe, p. 57), “The Battle of Magh Leana” (Ossianic Soc.) and Proc. R.I.Acad, xxxiv. p. 129 and pp. 143-9. The earliest (Laud tract) is of the seventh century.
- ↑ “Rennes Dind. Senchas,” Rev. Celt. xv. p. 317.
- ↑ The clearing of forests by the Irish chiefs is frequently mentioned in the sagas and euhemerist annals, in some cases it seems connected with the gods. One recalls Hesus cutting the tree in the well-known Gaulish example. Eogabal, Aine and the deities used to clear Knockainey Hill on Samhain Eve and their enemy Oilioll Aulom cleared the plain round the ridge (“Yew of the Son of Adversity,” ed. Dr. Douglas Hyde, Celt. Review, 1918, p. 10). See also “Zeus, Jupiter and the Oak” (Classical Rev. xvii. p. 182, A. Bernard Cook) for clans privileged to cut trees. Hesus, like Lug, was “Mercury.”
- ↑ Rev. Celt. xvi. p. 51.
