described as brought from Spain; Cúchulainn[1] receives a visit from a warlike maiden who, having fallen in love with him, comes to see him from the Plains of Spain;[2] and Eogan Mór, another form of the solar hero, is enabled by his leman Eadaoin, or Etin, a goddess dwelling in Great Beare Island, to escape from his enemies to Spain, and to return thence in due time to overcome them.[3] Further, a giant of infernal origin, slain on Mont St. Michel in France by king Arthur, is similarly said to have come to settle there from Spain.[4] So the descent of the ancient Irish from Mile, son of Bile, king of Spain, meant nothing more than what Caesar expressed differently when stating that the druids taught the Gauls that they were all descended from Dis Pater.
The names Bile and Beli corroborate this conjecture, as they are doubtless to be interpreted to mean death or some kindred idea, and to be referred to the same origin as the words mentioned (p. 37) in connection with the name of the Celtic Mars Belatucadros. The meaning of the name of Dôn, Beli's consort, was analogous, for Welsh Dôn, Irish Donu or Danu, are to be referred to the same origin as the English word dwindle, North-Eng. dwyne, 'to fall into a swoon,' A. -Saxon
- ↑ See folio 60b of the Bk. of the Dun, a MS. compiled, about the year 1100, from older sources: its Irish name is Lebor na huidre or Leabhar na h-Uidhre. My references are to the lithographed facsimile published by the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin, 1870).
- ↑ Bk. of Leinster, 254b.
- ↑ Battle of Magh Leana, ed. by O'Curry (Dublin, 1855), pp. 30, 36.
- ↑ Geoffrey's Historia Begum Britanniae (ed. San-Marte) x. 3. M. d'Arbois de Jubainville has, by a different route, arrived at the same conclusion as to the meaning to be attached to the term Spain in such contexts: see his Cycle Mythol. pp. 85, 137.
