- The Grove of Manannan Mac Lir is a group of members of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD) in and around the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California (USA) who spiritually support one another in our Bardic, Ovate, and Druid work.
- Formed in 1971 by old schoolmates Dane Stevens and Cedric Sharpley, along with local bass player Neil Brewer, Druid spent years playing clubs as a trio before winning a competition by Melody Maker for the best unsigned band. At this point they added Andrew McCrorie-Shand, a recent London College of.
- Druid Massage / Body Alignment. This is a therapeutic method based on manual actions performed on the entire human body for maintaining or improving health; it includes over 100 maneuvers on the entire clients body.
- A Druid advised Finn Mac Cumhail to bury the fellow the next time head downward, which effectually stopped his magic and his resurrection powers. Fintain was another hero of antiquity. When the Deluge occurred, he managed by Druidic arts to escape. Subsequently, through the ages, he manifested himself in various forms.
The Druid class can be played in a variety of fashions, from mid-game Tempo and Aggression to late-game Control. One thing most Druid decks have in common however, is the use of cards like Wild Growth and Innervate to accelerate your Mana and gain an advantage over your opponent.
The Story of Mac Dathó’s Pig.1
Translated by Angela Grant.
There was a famous king2 over the men of Leinster, Mac Dathó3 was his name. He had a dog. The dog used to protect all the Leinstermen.4 Ailbe was the name of the dog, and Ireland was full of the dog’s fame. Messengers came from Ailill and from Medb to ask for the dog. At the same time there came messengers from the Ulstermen and from Conchobar to ask for the same dog. Welcome was made to them all, and they were taken to Mac Dathó in the hostel. That is one of the five hostels that were in Ireland at that time, this and the hostel of Da Derga in the district of Cualu, and the hostel of Forgall Manach, and the hostel of Mac Da-Reo in Brefne, and the hostel of Da Choca in the western part of Meath. Seven doors were in the hostel and seven roads through it and seven hearths in it and seven cauldrons. There was an ox and a salt-pig in each cauldron. The man who came along the road thrust the flesh fork in the cauldron, and whatever he got from the first taking, it is that he ate. If, however, he got nothing from the first attempt, he got no other.5
Then the messengers were brought to him at his couch for determining their wishes before they might be given their food. They made their requests. ‘We have come seeking the dog’ said the messengers of the Connachta,6 ‘that is from Ailill and from Medb; and we will give three score hundred milch cows at once and a chariot and the two horses which the Connachta will consider to be best and the same again at the end of a year. ‘We have come from Conchobar to ask for the dog also,’ said the messengers of the Ulstermen, ‘and Conchobar is no less serious as regards friendship and the bestowal of valuables and cattle; just as much will be given from the north as well, and there will be good friendship from that.’
This then rendered Mac Dathó silent and as a result he was three days without drink and without food, tossing and turning from one side to the other. At that his wife said: ‘You’ve been making a long fast. You have food, although you do not eat. What ails you?’ He made no reply to her. At that his wife said:7
A disturbance of sleep was brought | to Mac Dathó, to his house, |
he had something that he is deliberating | without speaking to anyone. |
He turns away, he turns from me to the wall | the anger of a hero with harsh valour; |
his clever wife, she gives it attention | that her companion is without sleep. |
[He:] Cremthann nía Náir8 said: | Do not give your secret to women. |
A woman’s secret is not well concealed, | a treasure is not bestowed upon a slave. |
[She:] Though it is to a woman that you might say it | if nothing were to be lost by that, |
something which you don’t see, | someone else may grasp |
[He:] The hound of Mes-Roída9 mac Dathó, | evil was the day he was come for; |
many fair men will fall because of him, | more than can be counted fighting for him. |
If it is not given to Conchobar, | it is certain the act will be churlish, |
his army will not leave behind | any more cattle than land. |
If a refusal is given to Ailill | the people of Fálmag10 will be cut down, |
the son of Mágach11 will bear us off, | he will reduce us to bare ashes. |
[She:] You have my advice about it | no evil as a consequence of it, |
give it to them both, | no matter who will fall because of it. |
[He:] The advice you give, | it will not make me weak. |
Ailbe, God sent him, | it is not known by whom he was given.12 |
After that he rose up and he makes a flourish. ‘Entertain us’ he said ‘and the guests that have come to us.’ They stayed with him three days and three nights. And he took them aside (that is the messengers of the Connachta first). ‘I have been,’ he said ‘in great anxiety and great doubt until it has become clear that I should give the dog to Ailill and to Medb. And let them come to meet the dog magnificently and proudly, and there will be drink and food and gifts, and they will take the dog, and they are welcome to it.’ The messengers of the Connachta were well pleased then. He went after that to the messengers of the Ulstermen. ‘After being in two minds’ he said ‘I have now given the dog to Conchobar. And let them be proud, those that go to meet him, that is the bands of the nobles of the Ulstermen. They will all get gifts and they will be welcome.’
On the same day, indeed, they had arranged to meet, both [the Connachta] from the west and [the Ulstermen] from the east. Nor did they neglect to appear. Two provinces13 of Ireland came on the same day until they were at the doors of the hostel of Mac Dathó. He himself came to meet them and welcomed them. ‘Warriors, we were not expecting you,’ said he, ‘nevertheless you are welcome. Come into the courtyard!’14 Afterwards they all went into the hostel, half the building then by the Connachta and the other half by the Ulstermen. The house was indeed not small, seven doors were in it and fifty couches15 between each two doors. They were not the faces of friends at a banquet, however, that were in the house. A large number of them had feuded against others. The war between them was three hundred years before the birth of Christ.16 Then Mac Dathó’s pig was killed for them. It was fed on three score milch-cows for seven years.17 However, it was fed on poison so that the slaughter of the men of Ireland might be carried out by means of it.
The pig was afterwards brought to them with forty oxen transversely across it, besides their other food. Mac Dathó himself presided over the feast. ‘Welcome to you’ he said ‘such food as this hardly befits your status; but the Leinstermen have cattle and pigs, and what is lacking from it will be killed for you tomorrow.’ ‘The pig is good’ said Conchobar. ‘It is good indeed’ said Ailill. ‘In what manner will the pig be carved, Conchobar?’ said Ailill. ‘How indeed?’ said Bricne mac Carbaid18 from above out of the couch, ‘here in a place where there are warriors of valour, men of Ireland, but to fight for the privilege of carving it? Each one of you has given a blow across the nose of his companion before.’ ‘Let it be done!’ said Ailill. ‘It is good’ said Conchobar; ‘that there are young men with us who have raided the borderland.’
‘You will need your warriors tonight, Conchobar,’ said Senláech19 of the Araid from Crúachain Con-Alad20 in the west; often I had them with their arses in the dirty water of Lúachair Dedad,21 often a fat calf of theirs was left behind with me.’ ‘It was a fatter calf you left behind with us,’ said Muinremur mac Gerrginn,22 ‘that is your own brother Crúaichniu mac Ruadluim23 from Crúachain Con-Alad.’ ‘He was not better,’ said Lugaid Mac Con-Ruí,24 ‘than Inloth Mór mac Fergusa meic Léti25 who was left behind by Echbél mac Dedad26 in Temair Lóchra.’27 ‘What manner of man is he to you?’ said Celtchair mac Uithechair,28 ‘I killed Conganchness mac Dedad29 and cut off his head.’
They mutually contested with one another until at last one man prevailed over the men of Ireland, that is Cet mac Mágach of the Connachta. Indeed he hung up his weapons above the weapons of the army and grasped a knife in his hand and sat down at the pig. ‘Find from the men of Ireland now,’ he said, ‘one man who can sustain combat against me, or let me carve the pig!’
A warrior was not found who would contend with him. It put the Ulstermen to silence. ‘You see that, Lóegaire?’30 said Conchobar. ‘It is not just,’ said Lóegaire, ‘that Cet should carve the pig in front of us.’ ‘Wait a little, Lóegaire, so that I might speak to you! It is your custom, you Ulstermen,’ said Cet, ‘that each son receiving weapons among you, he makes us his goal. Indeed you came to the borderland. We met together at it. You left behind the wheel and the chariot and the horses, and you yourself escaped with a spear through you. You won’t reach the pig like that.’ At that the other sat down.
‘It is not just,’ said a large fair-haired warrior who rose from the couch, ‘that Cet should carve the pig in front of us.’ ‘Who is this?’ said Cet. ‘He is better as a warrior than you are,’ said everyone, ‘that is Óengus mac Láme Gábaid of the Ulstermen.’ ‘Why is his father called Lám Gábuid?’31 said Cet. ‘Why indeed?’ ‘I know,’ said Cet. ‘At one time I came eastward. There was a screaming around me. Everyone came. Then Lám came. He threw a great spear at me. I threw the same spear at him so that it carried off his hand from him, it was on the ground. What would bring his son to fight against me?’ Óengus sat down.
‘On with the contest,’ said Cet, ‘or I’ll carve the pig.’ ‘It is not just that you should carve it first,’ said a huge fair-haired warrior from the Ulstermen. ‘Who is this?’ said Cet. ‘That is Éogan32 mac Durthacht,’ said everyone, ‘the king of Fernmag.’33 ‘I have seen him before,’ said Cet. ‘Where have you seen me?’ said Éogan. ‘At the door of your house when driving cattle off from you. There was screaming around me in the land. At the screaming you came forth. You threw a spear at me so that it stuck in my shield. I threw the same spear at you so that it went through your head and so that it carried off your eye out of your head. You see the men of Ireland with one eye. I took the other eye from your head.’ Then the other sat down.
‘Carry on, Ulstermen, on with the contest,’ said Cet. ‘You will not carve it now,’ said Muinremur mac Gerginn. ‘Is this Muinremur?’ said Cet. ‘I have cleaned my spears at last, Muinremur,’ said Cet. ‘It is not three days since I took from your land three warriors’ heads including the head of your first-born son.’ Then the other sat down.
‘On with the contest!’ said Cet. ‘That you will have,’ said Mend mac Sálchada. ‘Who is that?’ said Cet. ‘Mend’ said everyone. ‘What now,’ said Cet, ‘the sons of churls with nicknames coming to contend with me? Because it was I that was priest at the baptism of his father with his name, I that took his heel from him with a sword so that he went away from me with only one foot. What would bring a son of the one-footed one to me?’ Then the other sat down.
‘On with the contest!’ said Cet. ‘That you will have,’ said a very ugly great grey warrior of the Ulstermen. ‘Who is that?’ said Cet. ‘That is Celtchair mac Uthecair,’ said everyone. ‘Stay a little, Celtchair,’ said Cet, ‘unless you want to fight me at once. I got to you, Celtchair, to the door of your house. There was screaming around me. Everyone came. Then you yourself came. You came to meet me in the gap. You threw a spear at me. I threw another spear towards you so that it went through your thigh and through the upper part of your testicles. You have a disease of the urine since then, so that you have sired neither son nor daughter. What brings you to me?’ Then the other sat down.
‘On with the contest!’ said Cet. ‘That you will have,’ said Cúscraid Mend Macha mac Conchobair.34 ‘Who is this?’ said Cet. ‘Cúscraid,’ said everyone, ‘he has the makings of a king in his appearance.’ ‘There is no good will to you,’ said the young man. ‘Good,’ said Cet, ‘You came to us for your first warlike deed, lad. We met together in the borderland. You left a third part of your retinue, and it is thus you went away with a spear through your neck so that you can’t get a word from your head properly; for the spear has injured the sinews of your neck. So that it is Cúscraid Mend, the stammerer, that you are called from that hour.’ He brought shame in that way on the whole province.
Then he displayed himself by the pig with a knife in his hand until they saw Conall Cernach in the house. Then he leapt down on to the floor of the house. The Ulstermen gave a great welcome to Conall. Then Conchobar drew the helmet from his head and gave it a flourish. ‘I would like to get a piece,’ said Conall, ‘who is carving it?’ ‘The carving of it was conceded to that man,’ said Conchobar, ‘Cet mac Mágach.’ ‘Is it true, Cet,’ said Conall, ‘that you are carving the pig?’ Then Cet said: ‘Welcome Conall, heart of stone, angry heat of a lynx, brightness of ice, strength of red anger, with the breast of a hero, full of scars battle-victorious. Son of Findchoím,35 you are my equal.’ And Conall said: ‘Welcome Cet, Cet mac Mágach, dwelling of a hero, heart of ice, plumage of a swan, a noble charioteer strong of combat, raging storm, beautiful fierce bull, Cet mac Mágach.36 That will be clear to me in our meeting,’ said Conall, ‘and it will be clear to me in our separating; it will be a famous tale with men of goads, it will be testimony to men of awls;37 prominent warriors will march forward fighting angrily with spear shafts; the two noble charioteers will perform exploit for exploit, men will go across men in this house tonight.’38
‘Get away from the pig!’ said Conall. ‘Indeed what might bring you to it?’ said Cet. ‘It is just,’ said Conall, ‘for Cet to ask for a contest with me. I will accept single combat with you, Cet,’ said Conall, ‘I swear by that which my people swear by, since I took spear in my hand, I’ve not gone without killing a man from the Connachta every single day and destroying with fire every single night, and I’ve never gone to sleep before I had the head of a Connaughtman under my knee.’ ‘It is just,’ said Cet, you are a better warrior than me. If Ánlúan39 were to have in the house, he would have given another contest to you. It is a pity for us he is not in the house.’ ‘But he is!’ said Conall, taking Ánlúan’s head out of his belt, and throwing it to Cet across his chest so that a spurt of blood broke out across the head’s mouth. Indeed he rose from the pig, and Conall sat down at it.
‘Come to the contest now!’ said Conall. A warrior was not found among the Connachta to continue. However an enclosing shelter of their shields was placed all around him, because it was a bad custom in the house for bad men to shoot darts across it. After that Conall went to carve the pig. And then he took the end of the belly in his mouth, so that the carving of the pig came to an end. He sucked the belly (that is a load for nine men) and left behind only a scrap of it.
Indeed he did not give to the Connachta anything but the two legs of the pig under its throat. Their portion was small indeed in the opinion of the Connachta. They rose, then the Ulstermen rose, so that they came at each other. Then there was a blow across the ear, until the heap of corpses that was on the floor was as high as the side wall of the house, so that there were rivers of blood through the doors. The host then broke out through the doors so that they had a good drinking round40 on the floor of the courtyard, each one battering the man next to him. It is then Fergus pulled up the great oak that was on the floor of the courtyard by its roots. Then they broke out from the courtyard. The battle took place at the courtyard door. It was then that Mac Dathó went out leading the dog, so that he might let it loose among them, in order to know which of them it would choose by instinct. The dog chose the Ulstermen and it let itself loose to slaughter the Connachta and it routed them. They say it was in Mag n-Ailbi41 that the dog grabbed the shaft of the chariot under Ailill and Medb. It was then that Fer Loga, the charioteer of Ailill and Medb struck it so that its body fell to one side and left its head on the chariot shaft. They say that it was from that they called it Mag n-Ailbi, Ailbe being the name of the dog.
Their flight went northwards over Beluch Sen-Roírenn42 over Áth Midbine43 in Maistin, past Cell Dara,44 past Ráith Imgain, to Fid n-Gaible45 to Áth Mac Lugnai,46 past Druim Dá Maige,47 over Drochet Coirpri.48 At Áth Cinn Chon49 in Bile, the head of the dog fell from the chariot. On going along the heath of Mide50 westward, Fer Loga, the charioteer of Ailill, jumped down on the heath and leapt in the chariot behind Conchobar’s back, so that he seized his head from behind. ‘Beware, Conchobar!’ he said. ‘You can have whatever you want!!’ said Conchobar. ‘Nothing much,’ said Fer Loga, ‘take me with you to Emain Macha and have the single women of the Ulstermen and their marriageable daughters sing songs about me each evening, saying: ‘Fe-e-r Loh-o-ga is my da-ah-ar-ling.’ They had to do it, because they didn’t dare go against Conchobar. And Fer Loga returned across Áth Lúain51 back west a year from that day, with two of Conchobar’s horses, with golden bridles on them.
That is the tale of Mac Dathó’s pig.
Notes:
![Druid For Mac Druid For Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126492545/250453671.jpg)
(1) This story is found in six manuscripts, the oldest of which is the Book of Leinster (c.1160). For the sake of practicality this translation has been made from the annotated edition by Rudolf Thurneysen (Dublin, 1935, reprinted 2004). Thurneysen felt it to be a genuine heroic tale from the Ulster cycle but Geoffrey Gantz, noting the absence of Cú Chulaind and that the Ulster heroes that are mentioned are shamed and made to look ridiculous, felt it to be a parody of an Ulster tale. (Early Irish Myths and Sagas (London, Penguin, 1981), pp.179-180) Kim McCone goes further to describe it as a ‘moral satire in the classical tradition of the ever popular Horace or Juvenal but inevitably geared by its monastic author to Christian principles.’ (Kim McCone, Pagan Past and Christian Present in Early Irish Literature (Maynooth, 2000), p.77)
(2) The word used in the Book of Leinster is rí, ‘king’. There is no reference in the Leinster king lists to Mac Dathó. However, in BM Harley MS 5280 the word is ríbríugu, ‘royal hosteller’. Building a hostel was an expensive business and the man who did so was regarded as the equal of a king.
(3) The name Mac Dathó is explained in another tale as meaning the son of the two dumb ones, however it is more likely that da is not ‘two’ but is a word indicating deity as in Dagda the ‘Good God’ and Da Derga the ‘Red God’.
(4) This is a curious statement. It was the king’s job to protect his people, not his dog’s. This is the first indication that something is not quite right with this story.
(5) Another curious statement that goes against the Irish laws on hospitality. The whole point of a hostel was that it gave hospitality to travellers according to their rank and status. Yet here they only had one chance at the cauldron. However there is a Biblical reference in 1 Samuel 2 as follows: “2:13 The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand; 2:14 and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.” See Kim McCone, Pagan Past and Christian Present in Early Irish Literature (Maynooth, 2000), p.32.
(6) The men of Connaught.
(7) When his wife speaks in this paragraph the verb used is the Latin dixit rather than an Irish verb. This clearly shows that the scribe had a Latin clerical training as well as a vernacular one. The following section is in verse; this often occurs in Old Irish stories particularly in passages of dialogue.
(8) A legendary king of Ireland. The name nía Náir means ‘nephew of Noble One’ (nár): the same root is thought to be in the Welsh name (A)neirin.
(9) This is the only place that his name is mentioned, otherwise only the patronymic is used. The name is usually translated as ‘fosterling of the great wood’. (Lehmann, RPM & WP, An Introduction to Old Irish (New York, 2004), p.185) However mes, as well as meaning fosterling, can mean seed of a tree as in ‘mast’ so ‘acorn of the great wood’ is equally possible.
(10) A poetic name for Ireland: ‘the plain of the stone of Fál’. The Stone was a phallic stone that stood on the hill of Tara. It played a part in the kingship ritual of pagan Ireland. (Lehmann, RPM & WP, An Introduction to Old Irish (New York, 2004), p.172)
(11) Cet mac Mágach. He plays a large part later in the story.
(12) The poem is a dunad, that is it starts and ends with the same word tucad Download mac software for lg gp55 drive. , ‘was brought’. The exact meaning of the line is puzzling. In the tale of Aided Cheltchair maic Uthechair, the Death of Celtchair mac Uthechair, Ailbe is one of three pups found in a burial cairn and it is there said that the dog was a gift to Mac Dathó but it is not said who gave it.
(13) The word used here is cóiced, ‘fifth’. The five provinces were Ulster, Connaught, Leinster, Munster and Meath.
(14) I have used ‘courtyard’ to translate the word less, which is an enclosed area round a building.
(15) The word imda could mean ‘couch’ or possibly ‘cubicle’. The story in The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel would imply the latter, however the details of construction of a hostel are uncertain. The size must be considerable if the description here is intended to be accurate. On the other hand it might be yet another oddity of the story.
(16) This is a variant on the normal version of the synthetic history of Ireland where Conchobar dies on hearing the news of the crucifixion of Christ. (See Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, The Lore of Ireland (Woodbridge, Boydell, 2006), pp.109-112) The war is the Táin Bó Cúailnge, the famous ‘Cattle Raid of Cooley’.
(17) This is curious. Has Mac Dathó been planning this for seven years?
(18) Otherwise Bricriu, an Ulster noble. He was named Nemthenga, ‘poison-tongue’ from his delight in causing trouble. In the story of Bricriu’s Feast he himself provides the feast. (Lehmann, RPM & WP, An Introduction to Old Irish (New York, 2004), p.160)
(19) The name simply means ‘Old Warrior’.
(20) A place of the Araid in West Munster, literally ‘Crúachain of the Speckled Dogs’. (Lehmann, RPM & WP, An Introduction to Old Irish (New York, 2004), p.165)
(21) In West Munster.
(22) A champion of the Ulstermen.
(23) A champion of the Araid, Senláech’s brother.
(24) Son of Cú Roí mac Dairi, king of West Munster. Cú Roí plays an important part in the Ulster cycle of tales. (Lehmann, RPM & WP, An Introduction to Old Irish (New York, 2004), p.183)
(25) An Ulster warrior.
(26) A champion of the Érainn from West Munster. (Lehmann, RPM & WP, An Introduction to Old Irish (New York, 2004), p.172)
(27) ‘Tara of the Rushes’, residence of the kings of the Érainn. (Lehmann, RPM & WP, An Introduction to Old Irish (New York, 2004), p.194)
(28) An Ulster champion, famed for his great size. (Lehmann, RPM & WP, An Introduction to Old Irish (New York, 2004), p.161)
(29) A warrior of the Érainn.
(30) Lóegaire Buadach, a prominent Ulster champion.
(31) Lám Gábuid literally means ‘taken hand’, so ‘No Hand’ would be a fair translation.
(32) Pronounced Owen.
(33) Now part of Monaghan.
(34) Literally Cúscraid the stammerer of Emain Macha son of Conchobar.
(35) Conall’s mother.
(36) In the Book of Leinster a capital ‘R’ is placed beside each word Fochen ‘Welcome’ in this passage, indicating that this is retoiric or rosc, a form of alliterative poetry.
(37) ‘Men of goads’ – cattle-drovers, ‘men of awls’- leather workers; i.e. the lower classes.
(38) This is a difficult passage with some of the words having multiple possible meanings. I have given what seems to me to be the most likely meaning, but there are other possibilities.
(39) In some versions he is Cet’s brother.
(40) An interesting and robust metaphor for a fight!
(41) ‘The Plain of Ailbe’.
(42) A pass in Co. Kildare.
(43) A ford on the River Liffey.
(44) Kildare.
(45) A wood in Co. Kildare.
(46) A ford in Co. Offaly.
(47) ‘The Ridge of the Two Plains’ in Co. Kildare.
(48) The bridge of Coirbre in Co. Kildare.
(49) ‘The Ford of the Head of the Dog’ in West Meath.
(50) Meath.
(51) A ford on the Shannon near the modern town of Athlone.
DRUIDICAL MAGIC.
As to magical arts, exercised by Druids and Druidesses, the ancient Irish MSS. are full of stories about them. Joyce has said, 'The Gaelic word for Druidical is almost always applied where we should use the word magical--to spells, incantations, metamorphoses, &c' Not even China at the present day is more given to charms and spells than was Ireland of old. Constant application of Druidic arts upon the individual must have given a sadness and terror to life, continuing long after the Druid had been supplanted.
It was a comfort to know that magician could be pitted against magician, and that though one might turn a person into a swan or horse, another could turn him back again.
Yet, the chewing of one's thumb was sometimes as effectual a disenchanter as the elevation or marking of the cross in subsequent centuries. Thus, when Fionn was once invited to take a seat beside a fair lady on her way to a palace, he, having some suspicion, put his thumb between his teeth, and she immediately changed into an ugly old hag with evil in her heart. That was a simple mode of detection, but may have been efficacious only in the case of such a hero as Fionn. Certainly, many a bad spirit would be expelled, in a rising quarrel, if one party were wise enough to put his thumb between his teeth.
Charm-mongers, who could take off a spell, must have been popular characters, and as useful as wart-removers. It is a pity, however, that the sacred salmon which used to frequent the Boyne is missing now, when examinations are so necessary, as he or she who bit a piece forgot nothing ever after. Balar, the Fomorian King, was a good-natured fellow, for, finding that a glance from his right eye caused death to a subject, he kept that eye constantly closed.
One way of calling spirits from the deep, to do one's will, was to go to sleep with the palms of both hands upon the cheek. The magic cauldron was not in such requirement as with the Welsh. But it was a Druidic trick to take an idol to bed, lay the hands to the face, and discover the secret of a riddle in dreams. Another trick reminds one of the skill of modern spiritualistic mediums, who could discover the history of a man by a piece of his coat; for, Cormac read the whole life of a dog from the skull.
Healing powers were magical. Our forefathers fancied that a part of enjoyment in heaven was fighting by day and feasting at night, the head cut off in daylight conflict resuming its position when the evening table was spread. The rival forces of Fomorians and Danaans had Druids, whose special work was to heal the wounded at night, so as to be ready for the next morning's battle.
In the Story of Deirdri it is written, 'As Conor saw this, he went to Cathbad the Druid, and said to him, 'Go, Cathbad, unto the sons of Usnach, and play Druidism upon them.' This was done. 'He had recourse to his intelligence and art to restrain the children of Usnach, so that he laid them under enchantment, that is, by putting around them a viscid sea of whelming waves.'
Nothing was more common than the raising of Druidic fogs. It would be easier to do that in Ireland or Scotland than in Australia. The Story of Cu speaks of a King Brudin who 'made a black fog of Druidism' by his draoidheacht, or magic. Druidic winds were blasting, as they came from the East. The Children of Lir were made to wander on the Irish Sea till the land became Christian.
A wonderful story in an old MS. respecting Diarmuid is connected with the threatened divorce of the lovely Mughain, as no prince had appeared to her husband the King. 'On this,' says the chronicler, 'the Queen went
to Finnen, a Magus (Druid) of Baal or Belus, and to Easbad, named Aedha, son of Beg, and told them she was barren. The Reataire (chief Druids) then consecrated some water, of which she drank, and conceived; and the produce of her womb was a white lamb. 'Woe is me!' said Mughain,' to bring forth a four-footed beast.' 'Not so,' replied Finnen, for your womb is thereby sanctified, and the lamb must be sacrificed as your first-born.' The priests blessed the water for her, she drank, and conceived. Say the priests, 'You shall now bring forth a son, and he shall be King over Ireland.' Then Finnen and Easbad Aedha blessed the Queen and the seed of her loins, and giving her more consecrated water, she drank of it, and called his name Aedh Slaines, because he was saved from the sacrifice.'
Well might Vallencey exclaim, 'The whole of this story is strong of Chaldæan Paganism, and could not have been invented by any Christian monks whatever.'
Cuchulainn of Ulster was much given to magic. He caught birds by it. He left his wife to be with a lady in fairy-land. Caught by spells, he was brought back home. He drank the draught of forgetfulness that he might not remember fairy-land, and she drank to forget her jealousy. All this is in Leabhar na-h-Uidhré.
When the Danaans raised a storm to drive off the invading hosts of Milesians, this was the spell used by Milesius, as told in the Book of Invasions:--'I pray that they reach the land of Erinn, these who are riding upon the great, productive, vast sea--that there may be a King for us in Tara,--that noble Erinn be a home for the ships and boats of the son of Milesius.'
By the 14th Canon of the Synod at Armagh, as asserted for the year 448, a penance was exacted for any soothsaying, or the foretelling of future events by an inspection
of animals' entrails, as was the practice with the Druids. It is curious to see how this magic was, by the early writers, associated with Simon Magus; so much so, that, as Rhys observes, 'The Goidelic Druids appear at times under the name of the School of Simon Druid.'
Fionn was once coursing with his dog Bran, when the hare suddenly turned into a lady weeping for the loss of her ring in the lake. Like a gallant, the hero dived down and got it; but all he had for his trouble was to be turned by her into a white-haired old man. On another occasion he was changed into a grey fawn. But Fionn endured the metamorphoses of twenty years as a hog, one hundred a stag, one hundred an eagle, and thirty a fish, besides living one hundred as a man. The heroine Caer had to be alternate years a swan and a woman.
The Kilkenny Transactions refer to one Liban, transformed for three hundred years as a fish, or, rather a mermaid, with her lap-dog in the shape of an otter after her. Bevan, however, caught her in a net, had her baptized, and then she died. In the Fate of the Children of Lir, we read of Aoife, second wife of Lir, jealous of her husband's children by his first mate, turning them into four swans till her spell could be broken. This happened under the Tuath rule, and lasted nine hundred years. They are reported to have said, 'Thou shalt fall in revenge for it, for thy power for our destruction is not greater than the Druidic power of our friends to avenge it upon thee.' However, having musical qualities, they enjoyed themselves in chanting every night. At last they heard the bell of St. Patrick. This broke the spell. They sang to the High King of heaven, revealed their name, and cried out, 'Come to baptize us, O cleric, for our death is near.'
An odd story of the Druid Mananan is preserved in the Ossian Transactions. It concerned a magical branch, bearing
nine apples of gold. They who shook the tree were lulled to sleep by music, forgetting want or sorrow.
Through that, Cormac, grandson of Conn of the hundred fights, lost his wife Eithne, son Cairbre, and daughter Ailbhe. At the end of a year's search, and passing through a dark, magical mist, he came to a hut, where a youth gave him a pork supper. The entertainer proved to be Mananan. The story runs, 'After this Mananan came to him in his proper shape, and said thus: 'lit was who bore these three away from thee; I it was who gave thee that branch, and it was in order to bring thee to this house. It was I that worked magic upon you, so that you might be with me tonight in friendship.' It may be doubted if this satisfied King Cormac.
A chessboard often served the purpose of divination. The laying on of hands has been from remote antiquity an effectual mode for the transmission of a charm. But a Magic Wand or Rod, in proper hands, has been the approved method of transformation, or any other miraculous interposition. Here is one Wand story relative to the romance of Grainne and Diarmuid:--'Then came the Reachtaire again, having a Magic Wand of sorcery, and struck his son with 'that wand, so that he made of him a cropped pig, having neither ear nor tail, and he said, 'I conjure thee that thou have the same length of life as Diarmuid O'Duibhne, and that it be by thee that he shall fall at last.'
This was the boar that killed, not the Syrian Adonis, but a similar sun-deity, Diarmuid. When Fionn, the disappointed husband, in pursuit of the runaway, found the abductor dying, he was entreated by the beautiful solar hero to save him. 'How can I do it?' asked the half-repentant Fionn. 'Easily,' said the wounded one; 'for when thou didst get the noble, precious gift of divining at
the Boinn, it was given thee that to whomsoever thou shouldst give a drink from the palms of thy hands, he should after that be young and sound from every sickness.' Unhappily, Fionn was so long debating with himself as to this gift to his enemy, that, when he walked towards him with the water, life had departed from the boar-stricken Irish Adonis.
Dr. W. R. Sullivan has a translation of the Fair of Carman, concerning three magicians and their mother from Athens:--
'By charms, and spells, and incantations, the mother blighted every place, and it was through magical devastation and dishonesty that the men dealt out destruction. They came to Erin to bring evil upon the Tuatha de Danann, by blighting the fertility of this isle. The Tuatha were angry at this; and they sent against them Ai the son of Allamh, on the part of their poets, and Credenbel on the part of their satirists, and Lug Laeban, i. e. the son of Cacher, on the part of their Druids, and Becuille on the part of the witches, to pronounce incantations against them. And these never parted from them until they forced the three men over the sea, and they left a pledge behind them, i.e., Carman, their mother, that they would never return to Erin.'
A counter-charm is given in the Senchus Mor. When the Druids sought to poison St. Patrick, the latter wrote over the liquor:--
'Tubu fis fri ibu, fis ibu anfis,
Fris bru uatha, ibu lithu, Christi Jesus.'
Fris bru uatha, ibu lithu, Christi Jesus.'
He left it on record that whoever pronounced these words over poison or liquor should receive no injury from it. It might be useful with Irish whisky; only the translator adds that the words of the charm, like most of the charms of the Middle Ages, appear to have had no meaning.
Spiritualism, in all its forms, appears to have been practised by the Irish and Scotch Druids. Dr. Armstrong's Gaelic Dictionary has an account of the Divination of the Toghairm, once a noted superstition among the Gaels, and evidently derived from Druid-serving ancestors. The so-called prophet 'was wrapped in the warm, smoking robe of a newly slain ox or cow, and laid at full length in the wildest recess of some lonely waterfall. The question was then put to him, and the oracle was left in solitude to consider it.' The steaming body cultivated the frenzy for a reply, although 'it was firmly believed to have been communicated by invisible beings.'
Similar traditions are related by Kennedy, in Fictions of the Irish Celts. One of the tales is of Sculloge, who spent his father's gold. While out hunting he saw an old man betting his left hand against his right. At once he played with him for sixpence, but won of the ancient Druid a hundred guineas. The next game won, the old fellow was made to rebuild the Irishman's mill. Another victory brought him as wife a princess from the far country. But Sabina, when married, besought him to have no more to do with old Lassa Buaicht of the glen.
Things went on well a good while, till the man wanted more gold, and he ventured upon a game. Losing, he was directed to bring the old Druid the Sword of Light. Sabina helped her husband to a Druidic horse, that carried him to her father's castle. There he learned it was held by another brother, also a Druid, in an enchanted place. With a black steed he leaped the wall, but was driven out by the magic sword. At last, through Fiach the Druid, the sword was given to Lassa Buaicht. The cry came, 'Take your Sword of Light, and off with his head.' Then the un-spelled wife reappeared, and the couple were happy ever after.
Conn of the Hundred Battles is often mentioned in
connection with Druids. One of the Irish MSS. thus introduces the Magical Stone of Tara:--'One evening Conn repaired at sunrise to the battlements of the Ri Raith or Royal fortress at Tara, accompanied by his three Druids, Mael, Bloc, and Bluicné, and his three poets, Ethain, Corb, and Cesare; for he was accustomed every day to repair to this place with the same company, for the purpose of watching the firmament, that no hostile aerial beings should descend upon Erin unknown to him. While standing in the usual place this morning, Conn happened to tread on a stone, and immediately the stone shrieked under his feet so as to be heard all over Tara, and throughout all Bregia or East Meath. Conn then asked his Druids why the stone had shrieked, what its name was, and what it said. The Druids took fifty-three days to consider, and returned the following answer:--'Fal is the name of the stone; it came from Inis Fal, or the Island of Fal. It has shrieked under your royal feet, and the number of the shrieks, which the stone has given forth, is the number of Kings that will succeed you.'
At the Battle of Magh Tuireadh with the Fomorians, it is said that the chief men of the Tuatha de Danann 'called their smiths, their brass-workers, their sorcerers, their Druids, their poets &c. The Druids were engaged putting the wounded in a bath of herbs, and then returning them whole to the battle ranks.
Nash, who showed much scepticism respecting Druids in Britain, wrote:--'In the Irish tales, on the contrary, the magician under the name of Draoi and Drudh, magician or Druid, Draioideacht, Druidhieat, magic plays a considerable part.' The Cabinri play a great part according to some authors; one speaks of the 'magic of Samhan, that is to say, Cabur.' A charm against evil spirits, found at Poitiers, is half Gallic, half Latin. Professor Lottner saw
that 'the Gallic words were identical with expressions still used in Irish.'
We are told of a rebel chief who was helped by a Druid against the King of Munster, to plague the Irish in the south-west by magically drying up all the water. The King succeeded in finding another Druid who brought forth an abundant supply. He did but cast his javelin, and a powerful spring burst forth at the spot where the weapon fell. Dill, the Druidical grandfather of another King of Munster, had a magical black horse, which won at every race.
Elsewhere is a chapter on the Tuatha de Danaans, concerning whom are so many stories of Druids. Attention is drawn by Rhys to 'the tendency of higher races to ascribe magical powers to lower ones; or, rather, to the conquered.'
A Druid's counsel was sometimes of service. A certain dwarf magician of Erregal, Co. Derry, had done a deal of mischief before he could be caught, killed, and buried. It was not long before he rose from the dead, and resumed his cruelties. Once more slain, he managed to appear again at his work. A Druid advised Finn Mac Cumhail to bury the fellow the next time head downward, which effectually stopped his magic and his resurrection powers.
Fintain was another hero of antiquity. When the Deluge occurred, he managed by Druidic arts to escape. Subsequently, through the ages, he manifested himself in various forms. This was, to O'Flaherty, an evidence that Irish Druids believed in the doctrine of metempsychosis. Fintain's grave is still to be recognized, though he has made no appearance on earth since the days of King Dermot.
Druid Form Macro
It is not safe to run counter to the Druids. When King Cormac turned against the Craft, Maelgenn incited the
Siabhradh, an evil spirit, to take revenge. By turning himself into a salmon, he succeeded in choking the sovereign with one of his bones. It was Fraechan, Druid of King Diarmaid, who made the wonderful Airbhi Druadh, or Druidical charm, that caused the death of three thousand warriors.
A King was once plagued by a lot of birds wherever he went. He inquired of his Druid Becnia as to the place they came from. The answer was, 'From the East.' Then came the order--'Bring me a tree from every wood in Ireland.' This was to get the right material to serve as a charm. Tree after tree failed to be of use. Only that from the wood of Frosmuine produced what was required for a charm. Upon the dichetal, or incantation, being uttered, the birds visited the King no more.
In the Book of Lecan is the story of a man who underwent some remarkable transformations. He was for 300 years a deer, for 300 a wild boar, for 300 a bird, and for the like age a salmon. In the latter state he was caught, and partly eaten by the Queen. The effect of this repast was the birth of Tuan Mac Coireall, who told the story of the antediluvian colonization of Ireland. One Druid, Trosdane, had a bath of the milk of thirty white-faced cows, which rendered his body invulnerable to poisoned arrows in battle.
Druid Form Classic
A Druid once said to Dathi, 'I have consulted the clouds of the man of Erin, and found that thou wilt soon return to Tara, and wilt invite all the provincial Kings and chiefs of Erin to the great feast of Tara, and there thou shalt decide with them upon making an expedition into Alba, Britain, and France, following the conquering footsteps of thy great-uncle Niall.' He succeeded in Alba, but died in Gaul. A brother of his became a convert to St. Patrick.
Grainne, the heroine of an elopement with the beautiful hero Diarmuid, or Dermot, fell into her trouble through Druid named Daire Duanach MacMorna. She was th daughter of King Cormac, whose grave is still shown at Tara, but she was betrothed to the aged, gigantic sovereign Fionn the Fenian. At the banquet in honour of the alliance, the Druid told the lady the names and qualities the chiefs assembled, particularly mentioning the graceful Diarmuid. She was smitten by his charms, particularly a love-mark on his shoulder, and readily agreed to break her promised vows in order to share his company. When she fled with him, Fionn and his son pursued the couple, who were aided in their flight by another Druid named Diorraing styled a skilful man of science.
A fine poem--The Fate of the Son of Usnach--relate the trials of Deirdri the Fair. Dr. Keating has this version 'Caffa the Druid foreboded and prophesied for the daughter (Deirdri, just born), that numerous mischiefs and losses would happen the Province (Ulster) on her account. Upon hearing this, the nobles proposed to put her to death forth with. 'Let it not be done so,' cried Conor (King), 'but I will take her with me, and send her to be reared, that she may become my own wife.' It was in her close retreat that she was seen and loved by Naisi, the son of Usnach and this brought on a fearful war between Ulster and Alba.
The Book of Leinster has the story of one that loved the Queen, who returned the compliment, but was watched too well to meet with him. He, however, and his foster brother, were turned, by a Druidic spell, into two beautiful birds, and so gained an entrance to the lady's bower making their escape again by a bird transformation. The King had some suspicion, and asked his Druid to find out the secret. The next time the birds flew, the King had his
watch; and, as soon as they resumed their human appearance, he set upon them and killed both.
The Book of Leinster records several cases of Druids taking opposite sides in battle. It was Greek meeting Greek. The northern Druids plagued the southern men by drying up the wells; but Mog Ruth, of the South, drove a silver tube into the ground, and a spring burst forth. Ciothrue made a fire, and said a charm with his mountain-ash stick, when a black cloud sent down a shower of blood. Nothing daunted, the other Druid,. Mog Ruth, transformed three noisy northern Druids into stones.
Spiritualism, as appears by the Banquet of Dun na n-Gedh, was used thus:--'This is the way it is to be done. The poet chews a piece of the flesh of a red pig, or of a dog or cat, and brings it afterwards on a flag behind the door, and chants an incantation upon it, and offers it to idol gods; and his idol gods are brought to him, but he finds them not on the morrow. And he pronounces incantations on his two palms; and his idol gods are also brought to him, in order that his sleep may not be interrupted. And he lays his two palms on his two cheeks, and thus falls asleep. And he is watched in order that no one may disturb or interrupt him, until everything about which he is engaged is revealed to him, which may be a minute, or two, or three, or as long as the ceremony requires--one palm over the other across his cheeks.'
The author of The Golden Bough, J. G. Frazer, judiciously reminds us that 'the superstitious beliefs and practices, which have been handed down by word of mouth, are generally of a far more archaic type than the religions depicted in the most ancient literature of the Aryan race.' A careful reading of the chapter on the 'Superstitions of the Irish' would be convincing on that point.
Among ancient superstitions of the Irish there was some relation to the Sacred Cow, reminding one of India, or even of the Egyptian worship of Apis. The Ossianic Transactions refer to this peculiarity.
There was the celebrated Glas Gaibhne, or Grey Cow of the Smith of the magical Tuaths. This serviceable animal supplied a large family and a host of servants. The Fomorians envied the possessor, and their leader stole her. The captive continued her beneficent gifts for many generations. Her ancient camps are still remembered by the peasantry. Another story is of King Diarmuid Mac Cearbhail, half a Druid and half a Christian, who killed his son for destroying a Sacred Cow. But Owen Connelan has a translation of the Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institute, which contains the narrative of a cow, which supplied at Tuaim-Daghualan the daily wants of nine score nuns; these ladies must have been Druidesses, the word Caillach meaning equally nuns and Druidesses. As W. Hackett remarks, 'The probability is that they were pagan Druidesses, and that the cows were living idols like Apis, or in some sense considered sacred animals.'
Druid Macros Bfa
One points out the usefulness of the Irish Druids in a day when enchantments prevailed. Etain, wife of Eochaid, was carried off by Mider through the roof, and two swans were seen in the air above Tara, joined together by a golden yoke. However, the husband managed to recover his stolen property by the aid of the mighty spell of his Druid.