The Tuatha Dé Danann: Myths of Ireland

Part 2 of Myths of Ireland: the shining gods of ancient Ireland, who came in dark clouds, fought the Fir Bolg and the giant Fomorians, and finally went to live under the hills. The past perfect and narrative tenses (they had burned their ships), before / after / by the time, and the vocabulary of battles and magic, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.

Before you read

Ireland, in the time before memory

The Tuatha Dé Danann are the gods of pre-Christian Ireland as they appear in the medieval tales: the Dagda, the “good god”, with his club and his cauldron that was never empty; Nuada, their king; Lugh, the young god of every skill; Brigid, the goddess of poetry, healing and smithcraft; the healer Dian Cécht; and the Morrígan, the goddess of war and prophecy. They brought four treasures: the Stone of Fál that cried out under the true king, the Spear of Lugh, the Sword of Nuada, and the Dagda’s Cauldron.

In the First Battle of Mag Tuired they defeated the Fir Bolg, but Nuada lost his hand, and because a king had to be perfect, he could no longer rule. The half-Fomorian Bres became king and treated the people cruelly. Nuada was given a hand of silver, then a living hand, and took back the throne. At the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, at Samhain, Lugh killed the Fomorian king Balor, his own grandfather, with a sling-stone through his deadly eye, as a prophecy had foretold.

Later, the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated by the Milesians, the ancestors of the Irish, who came from Spain. They agreed to divide the land: the Milesians took the world above, and the Tuatha Dé Danann went into the sídhe, the mounds and hills, where they became the aos sí, the fairy people of later folklore. Some medieval writers, being Christian monks, explained them as ancient humans or fallen angels rather than gods.

Even gods must choose between staying and leaving.

The story

Retold for this lesson from the Lebor Gabála Érenn and Cath Maige Tuired (The Second Battle of Mag Tuired), and Lady Gregory’s Gods and Fighting Men (1904).

On the first day of summer, the old books say, dark clouds came over Ireland and covered the sun for three days. When they lifted, a people stood on a mountain in the west, shining and terrible, and the smoke of their burning ships rose behind them. They had burned them on purpose, so that no one would ever think of going back. They were the Tuatha Dé Danann.

The Fir Bolg, who had ruled Ireland for thirty-seven years, would not share the land, and the two peoples fought on the plain of Mag Tuired. The Tuatha Dé Danann won, but their king Nuada lost his right hand in the battle. By the law of the gods, a king with a blemish could not rule, and so the beautiful Bres, whose father was a Fomorian, was made king. He was mean and greedy, and soon the gods were working like slaves for the Fomorians.

Then the healer Dian Cécht made Nuada a hand of silver, and his son made the hand grow flesh again, and Nuada was king once more. At his court arrived a young warrior who knew every art: smith, poet, harper, healer, champion. His name was Lugh, and his mother was the daughter of Balor of the Evil Eye, the king of the Fomorians. It had been foretold that Balor would be killed by his own grandson.

At Samhain, on the plain of Mag Tuired, the second great battle began. Balor’s eye was so terrible that four men had to lift its lid with a polished handle, and whatever it looked upon was destroyed. As the lid was raised, Lugh put a stone in his sling and threw it, and it struck the eye so hard that it went out through the back of Balor’s head and turned its power on his own army. The Fomorians were driven into the sea.

Many years later, the sons of Míl came from Spain and defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann in their turn. The poet Amergin made the peace: the Milesians would have the world above, and the Tuatha Dé Danann the world below. So the old gods went into the green mounds and the hollow hills, and they are there still, people say, the aos sí, the fairy folk, who come out on the nights of Samhain and Bealtaine.

SOPHIA

It is our story too, Philo! Kronos was told that his son would overthrow him, and Zeus did. And King Acrisius of Argos was told that his grandson would kill him, and Perseus did, by accident, with a discus. Prophecies about grandsons are never wrong.

PHILO

And the Torah says that in the old days there were giants on the earth, the Nephilim, and later, when Israel came to the land, the scouts said they felt like grasshoppers beside the giants there. Every land remembers a people of giants who lived there before.

Words and forms	Use	Example
had + past participle	the past perfect: an earlier past	They had burned their ships.
past continuous / past simple / past perfect	narrative tenses	The giants were attacking when Lugh arrived.
before / after + clause or -ing	time order	After landing, they burned their ships.
by the time + past simple	with past perfect	By the time he arrived, Bres had ruled.
a prophecy, a sling, a cauldron, to be defeated	battle and magic words	A prophecy foretold Balor’s death.

Talk and write

Discussion and writing

Retell the battle. In groups, retell the Second Battle of Mag Tuired as a radio report, using the three narrative tenses.

Discuss. 1. Why do you think the gods “went into the hills” rather than disappearing? 2. Why do so many myths have prophecies about grandsons? 3. Why did Christian monks keep these stories?

Write (120–150 words). The day the shining people came. Tell the arrival of the Tuatha Dé Danann from the point of view of a Fir Bolg watching from the hills. Use the past perfect.

The Tuatha Dé Danann

Before you read

The story

Practice

A · The story

B · Grammar and vocabulary

C · Right or wrong?

Talk and write