The Dagda - (Celtic Mythology Explained)

i am the fire of the eyelid of the mighty waterfall the good god of druidism of the tour de danan the mighty one of great knowledge and horseman great father are my three names [Music] few gods of the girls are as well known as the dogda in the medieval tales he is both exalted as a great king father and druid and the object of mockery he is said to have been the king in the beginning yet presented as a later lord whose rule goes unexplained he is known by many names and is the father of many important gods but his nature is mysterious hidden beneath the seven cowls that obscure his face what is the true nature of this great father husband of the frightening morrigan a druid a trickster a liar a digger of the earth and the distributor of the mounds who is the dog [Music] hi friends i'm kevin maclean don't forget to like subscribe and consider supporting my work through patreon or paypal much thanks to all of my supporters in the intoxication of the ulsterman kuroi makdaira is provided the most detailed description of the god in any surviving sources i saw a large eyed large thigh noble great immensely tall man with a splendid grey cloak about him with seven short black equally smooth cowls around him shorter was each upper one longer each lower at either side of him were nine men in his hand was a dreadful iron staff on which was a furious end and a smooth end his play and amusement consisted in laying the furious end on the heads of the nine whom he would kill in the space of a moment he would then lay the smooth end on them so that he would reanimate them in the same time many geysers has the one described said kuroi who is that then asked a little not hard to tell said kuroi the great dagda son of ethio the good god of the two to magnify valor in conflict he brought confusion upon the host in the morning this day and no one in the host sees him it should be obvious from the description that he is not the gaelic thor as he is sometimes wrongly depicted he is a complex figure that can only be understood when examining in detail his various associations within the overall indo-european worldview he is a god with many names though he is most commonly known as the dagda or daga in modern gaelic pronunciation medieval commentators generally believed it meant the good god which is often accepted by modern scholars as well good isn't intended to have a moral connotation here but is used in terms of ability when the god nuada asks the dog what tasks he will perform in the great battle and he replied that the power which ye boast i shall wield it all myself it is you who are the dargdah said everyone wherefore thenceforward the name dagda adhered to him in other words since he vows to be able to wield all of the skills previously mentioned he is called the good god because he is greatly skilled at everything he makes his comment after mathgen the sorcerer said he would cast the mountains of ireland upon the famorians and roll their summits against the ground the cupbearers vowed to remove all the water from the rivers of ireland to make the fomorians die of thirst and fiergo the druit said he would cast fire on the faces of the femorians robbing them of their senses and strength and bind their urine but he would increase the bravery and strength of the men of ireland the dogda claims the ability to wield all of the powers that the sorcerers and druids professed and it is with these arts that he is most often connected the tale of the dogda is a confused one obscured by christianization of original tales in the typical story presented in the book the taking of ireland we are told that he is one of three central kings of the tuatha dadanan nuada holds the sword of findeth lug the spear of gorius and the dagda the cauldron from murias he accompanied nuada when he led the twathadad to ireland in the dark clouds and fought against the fear bullock then he aided luge in the second battle of magturit against the famorians and finally he served as king when luge was overthrown by the sons of kermit however this structure is likely not the original one or at least not the only one as the great father and the father of existence as he refers to himself as in the second battle of magturd he may have been the first king no definite myth survives about his rule but he is always thought to be lord of the shida or she in modern pronunciation the fairy mounds and burial mounds of ancient kings he is said to have been killed by a poisoned dart of kathleen wife of balor his gravesite is the brugna bonya the most famous burial site of kings who are believed to enjoy a bright afterlife in his abode filled with endless food and drink in one tale his home is at ushnach from where he could look out over all of ireland one of the most used names for the dogda is in modern pronunciation meaning horseman great father the title author is directly cognate with the name given to the norse god odinn all father this cannot be a coincidence and a number of aspects of norse odinn have a common origin with the dogta often he is simply referred to as echef and many later legendary kings named echeth may be named after him and are occasionally associated with similar mythical themes the name is derived from the word for horse and it is likely that in an earlier period he was not the great horseman but the great horse the third common name of the doga is ruid ro essa the mighty one of great knowledge sometimes translated as red one of great knowledge it is explained in the book of lenster that ergna meaning understanding is a son of acne wisdom who is the son of the three gods of art who are the sons of bridget who is a lore master who is the daughter of the dagdah who is the mighty one of great knowledge it explains that the dogdah is the son of all of the arts mach nullan dana and that he was the youth who had every art knowledge and poetry are consistently linked to him he is sometimes called dagda of the songs when historical figures are compared to him in praise poetry it is in the context of them being extremely knowledgeable or master poets saint cormack who is both a king and a noted scholar who composed cormac's glossary is given such praise in the book of lennster colemak the wonderful sage after the form of the doctor i declare son of kulenin a clear song with great beautiful chanting his children are likewise connected to these themes brigid or bridge his daughter is called the goddess of the philly his son angus macog or anus is connected to prophecy and knowledge a third son kermit is sometimes called honeymouth or the harper under the name fair ben the dogda is also called the father of rigberth meaning king bard which may in fact be another name for kermit aid or in modern gaelic pronunciation simply means fire and is cognate with the latin word for temple derived from the altar fire the dagda is not only a master of music and poetry but connected to its origin in the tanbo freyja said the illustrious triad are three brothers namely sorrow strain joy strain and sleep strain bowen from the sheath is the mother of the triad it is from the music which uafna the dogged as harper played that the three are named that in shenahouse of allah says who is the king over all aaron sweet sounding radiant who but the skillful dog he is also the god of druidry or magic in the battle of mugtared he proclaims that i will take the side of the men of ireland with noble slaughter and complete destruction and witchcraft in the typically available translation this last word appears instead as sorcery but in gaelic amidithi refers specifically to witchcraft from amith meaning a witch hag or other female magical figure he possesses all magic even that which is generally relegated to women akin to odinn's practice of said the word for complete destruction here admilid can also be translated as blight hindering derangement casting the evil eye or other harmful magical effects and it is this meaning which may be intended when he is described to kuroi going about the troops he is spreading confusion increasing the desire to fight something also connected to his wife the morrigan when his son kermit declares that he has all the magical powers of his father he declares that he will turn the blades and points of luke's weapons and render them useless in the taking of the sheather it says of him there was a wondrous king over the tuatha day in ireland dagon by name the dagda great was his power even over the sons of mill after they had seized the land for the dwarfs they damaged the grain and the milk of the sons of mill until they made a treaty with the doctor thereafter they preserve their grains and their milk for them dagon may mean something like greatly good but it may also refer to the semitic god mentioned in the bible dagon which appears in old gaelic texts how much they knew of the nature of dagon beyond what is said of him in the bible is hard to say but he is a fertility god if they knew it or not it does align with many powers ascribed to the dogdah of the fort of allah it is said alach the hill where the dog just slept red or its flowers many its houses view its plunderings plum its stones though there were many gods and many different tribal names for them the early gaelic pantheon seems to have revolved around three chief deities nuada luge and the dogdah not always by these names they are associated with different aspects of nature the mind and social roles all three of them are inevitably involved in weather and seasonal change in their own ways nuada was said to bring the gods to ireland in clouds that covered the sun and he is linked to water luge summons the fierce powers of floods winds lightning and light of the sun and moon the dogdah however was believed to rule over the seasons or weather in relation to produce profit and crops in the wooing of a dane it says his other name was the dog for it was he who used to do the miracles and ruled the seasons and the produce for them this aspect is also emphasized in the sheather mounds that he ascribes to himself the sheather of the wide milk fields oy aside the sheep growing sheath banya the white she perhaps referring to banya as in milk it is also one of the key associations of his daughter bridget who manages domesticated animals and ensures the bounty in the household of the brugna boyne it is said behold the fairy mound before your eyes it is plain for you to see it is a kingly dwelling it was built by the harsh dog it was a shelter it was a keep renowned for strength entertainment was made by him for the king in the mound by means of lasting deception thence is named it is not a question without a key mound of refuse before the eyes of the hosts the idea that the dogda made the mound which is also called the mound of refuse links it to the idea which kuhlin states in the wooing of ever when it says that after luge's victory the tuatha day put on a giant feast for him and that the hill at tautu was the refuse from that feast this appears to be the same type of myth applied to a different site the dogda is presented as being a cook for high king konora consistently connecting the dogda with food the connection between the dogda and crops may be related to control over the seasons in the battle of mug turret when he and his brothers ogma and lug come to the camp of the famorians to retrieve his stolen harp he calls out come da da blah come come summer come winter mouths of harps and bags and pipes the exact translation of the first name da da blah is not certain but it may be from daur da blah meaning oak of two shouts planes or borders or it may be from daort habla meaning murmuring apple the second name means the four-angled harp but more strictly the harmonized four angles it is shown here related to the ordering of the seasons as well as the origin of all music the cosmic harmony which is represented by the harmonious flowing of time which the femorians disrupted and which must be taken back from them for order to be restored luge overcomes the fomorian army through military force nadagda restores harmony through the retrieval of his harp this association with seasons and produce may be similar to greek chronos and roman saturn both progenitor gods linked to seasons and crops a dinchenhaus tale about magmurthemna describes how the dagda drove water from the land along with an octopus some say this shows that he was a thunder god as he battles a sea monster akin to thor but the context of this battle is different the battle is purely a magical chant and the focus is on removing the waters from the land contrary to the nature of a storm god it would seem in the tale of the birth of his son angus he makes nine months appear like one day bridget adopted as a christian saint but originally a daughter of the dogda is connected to fire and sun saint brokens hymn to her says a day of reaping for her it was well reaped no fault was found there with my pious one it was dry weather ever in her field though the land around poured heavy rain another hymn says bridget every good woman flame golden sparkling may she bear us to the eternal kingdom the sun fiery radiant a special symbol called saint brigid's cross is made out of reeds and is solar in nature however her primary functions are with maintaining livestock feeding the household and producing plenty including financial wealth the dogda also has a son called eid meaning fire and is sometimes himself called aid however it's explained in relation to the dog that this aid actually means i rather than fire scottish gaelic folklore says angus and brigid became rulers of summer bridget was held captive during the winter mybera but eventually she and angus came to rule as bera weakened during the hottest days of summer bera sends the thunderhag to battle them or in some cases she comes herself this thunderhag doesn't bring rain but actually withholds it causing fires and droughts to sweep the land both angus and brigid are powerless to stop her so they call the hero connell curlew and he climbs a hill and casts a spear at the clouds as the thunder hag is rolling by in her chariot causing the chariot wheel to break the clouds and bring the reins this shows that angus and bridget are unable to affect the weather not only the rains but also summer itself they are dependent upon the seasonal cycle and the lightning hero god angus and brigid's rule of summer may have more to do with the growth of plants and fertility of earth and they are thought to personify aspects of the season and are thus connected to the powers of the sun of that season angus's title mach og or young's son is suggestive perhaps of fresh growth that emerges up from the earth in a denshona house entry for the broog it calls angus the son of the bold tree suggestive of exactly this idea of vegetative growth an identical concept is found concerning the slavic god urillo a god of plant life and fertility whose name comes from an indo-european root meaning summer or spring the name angus means one power which is to imply sexual desire and the force of uniting he is said to spread love through his birds which however was believed to be a deadly disease in britain and gaul he was known as mabon or maponos linked with roman apollo but welsh tales of mabon show he was like in gaelic tradition thought to dwell in the earth brigid is connected with the celebration of imbolc explained in cormac's glossary as the time that sheep's milk comes which requires the ew to be impregnated this is likely related to the name of one of the doctor's homes oy asith meaning growing sheep her connection to sun and fire is probably similar to that of angus as seasonal expressions of powers of the sun heat and fertility yet during the winter brigid may have been thought to dwell beneath the earth emerging alongside the milk of ewes and the budding of trees as expressions of her power a power whose origin resides in the doctor according to the carmena godelica the sighting of a snake emerging on bridget's day was a good sign from her that winter was coming to an end yet there is hardly a more catholic symbol than a serpent the etymology of kermit's name is not certain it may refer to kermith meaning lopping or trimming he is best known for sleeping with or stealing away luke's wife and he has three children which may well have been born of luke's wife who are commonly known as makkul makkert and mac grien son of the hazel son of the plow and son of the sun they are paired with eru banva and foldle the triple goddesses of ireland though it doesn't tell us much it continues a theme of sun crops and knowledge the hazelnut is one of the prime symbols of druidic knowledge in ireland and this knowledge was derived from the dagda adenhas entry for drum suamak says tulach there meaning hill of tears to wit the tears of the great dogdah which he shed in bewailing his son kermit then he beheld the blaze of destruction another version changes kermit's name for eid the dog just other son but it possibly refers to either the way that they were killed or to their funeral pyre in a few tales people involved in adultery are burned in hilltop fires it is possible that in origin aid was the god of the sacrificial fire and the funeral pyre both of which send sacrifices and the dead into the realm of the gods this fire would have been created by a druid and thus the fire was the son of the druid god the doctor gave his son ed mag floychros meaning the plane of wet wood that he dwells within a place called wet wood suggests that he was fire itself and some tales mentioned vulcan using the roman god of fire's name as dwelling within the mounds beneath the earth he fell in love with echrid meaning steeds but she refused his advances because she was married to caudal perhaps meaning animal hide the dogda told his son to take her by force and to take cuddle prisoner all of the woman's family rose up to rescue her and they stormed the house of ayd and won her back the dagda musters all his sons to make war but elkvar the judge stopped them and awarded lands from the dogda to the wronged party this location seems to refer to a small island off the east coast now called ireland's eye an english translation of a norse name but given that aid in relation to a name for the dogda is explained as meaning i perhaps this norse name and this myth somehow are related it also sleeps with tethra either meaning a scowled crow or the sea and was killed by her husband korken which means pointed head finally under the name eid avrith the dogdah is said to have been the father of lavrith mentioned in severaled in shenhae's tales and in the wasting sickness of ku holland where kuhlen helps lavreth wage a battle in the underworld akin to the welsh tale where araun the king of the underworld has push fight a battle for him lavreth appears as a ruler of the underworld of magmel surrounded by many daughters of the dagda fan is also a daughter of the dagda linked to ku holland's near-death experience he is also father of ange a name possibly referring to a heavy burden she has gathered many sticks to make herself a new tub because the one the dogda had made for her dripped when the sea was at full tide but would not drip when it was at low tide the tale explains the tides through the dogda's peculiar manufacture of the earth's boundaries yet despite solar and fire connections of some of the dogged as children the god himself is not pictured as luminous he is a concealed god who dresses in dark earthy colors he creates a massive boundary ditch around the provinces called the track of the dogda's staff linking him to the boundaries he also created many such ditches around fortresses which king bress had tasked him with during his inglorious rule his island of learning was murderous with mur likely meaning earthen ditches mounds and walls one of his names is kera meaning dark one and he is once called keren the clod meaning dark one of the ditches in a fitness of names it is said he was a god of the earth to them due to the greatness of his power in the tale of the invasion of nevitt the dogda is referred to as ferben a name the dog also gives to himself in the battle of mugturt most likely meaning horned man and he is called king of the land ri nachir referring to the ground or earth in goal and britain there are archaeological examples of such a horned man most famously on the gunderstrop cauldron it is possible that this figure represents a god akin to the dogda and symbolism around this god suggests he was a lord of the earth the doctor has many epithets that suggest such a nature such as down meaning dark or brown durr hard drawn solid drekhwar reddish brown face and this large face is compared to the size of a field dress can be used to describe the surface of the ground and in english we say face of the earth he is often linked to ruid which refers to a reddish brown color such as the fur of a deer he is also once called dagde drechur which may mean earth-faced or soil-faced in the battle of mugtured a comical scene unfolds after the dagda is sent by luke to spy on and delay the femorians the dagda is offered a massive amount of porridge for he was said to greatly love it but it was provided to him in a giant pit in the earth this was done to mock him but also so that he could not reproach them for being inhospitable meaning that the dog also oversaw hospitality something closely linked to his daughter bridget as well yet this practice of feeding a god from a hole in the earth is exactly akin to real methods of sacrifice to deities of the earth for which there is archaeological evidence for in britain afterwards he is so full his belly is as big as a cauldron he then comes across a beautiful young woman whom he desires but she wrestles him to the ground overpowering him throwing him down and beating the crap out of him literally she is the daughter of indec the king of the femorians and the scene is intended to be silly but it may be connected to the use of manure on fields afterwards she demands a ride on his back as if he were a horse he is described in that scene as wearing horse-haired boots with the fur turned outward and in a more archaic period he may have been thought of as a horse index daughter wants a ride to her father's house but as he is the king of the famorians that would be in the other world or at the very least conceptualized as somewhere across the sea yet the dogda does give her a ride there on his back and copulates with her there showing his ability to travel to the underworld and his close connection to it it's likely part of the reason he was chosen by luke for this mission to the famourians one of the many names he uses to refer to himself in the scene is fair ben or fairban brewer meaning horned man of the border the copulation is also an expression of his fertility and it's the second time in one short tale that he engages in it it was said that he put large stones in his belt and that they fell to the earth which some people called the testicles of the dogda his sons are also involved in episodes where they steal the wives of other gods and he himself does this with the conception of angus the most obvious symbol however of the dogda's mastery over earthly fertility is his cauldron one of the four sacred artifacts of the gods it never runs dry and is able to satisfy all who come to it he received it and his magical training from the island of murias with mur either referring to the earthen mound or dike or to abundance he possesses a girdle for cooking and his wife the morgan has a cooking spit in the tale da de orgas hostel the dogda is described as a fair-looking man with gray hair who is the cook for king conora along with two apprentices strength and accomplishment though we may not picture the dog as a chef it shows he was consistently connected with the provision of food and this also extends to the realm of the dead where the kings in death reside in the home of the dogda or angus and feast and drink endlessly also connected with fertility is his status as great father in his dialogue with index daughter he refers to himself as the great father of existence and the denier of the great decay suggesting he brought the world into being and maintains it from destruction though the gaelic creation myth has been destroyed beyond the possibility of genuine recovery the dogdah may have been an instrumental figure in it his mother is ethno pronounced today as enya the same mother as lou and sometimes also said to be the mother of dian kest goevnew and sometimes augma the name ethniu may be related to ethach meaning cattle and is once said to be another name for boeing which originally meant white cow in origin she may have been the great cow goddess the same as the magical cow known as glass government and similar to norse adhumbla the doctor's father is elita a famorian whose name means art he appears to have been an abstract concept used to explain the descent of the gods of art his wife is the morrigan her name is thought to mean great queen and would be a good match for the great father although it may be related to mayor as in nightmare she is described as the lamia of the gaels a frightening figure who contrives the deaths of men and instigates wars there is some evidence to suggest that she was at one point an aspect of an earth goddess the paps of the dagdas consort sometimes identified as morrigan other times anna are hills near the brug complex where kermit was said to be born yet in surviving sources her overriding characterization is frightening and connected with war and death we can tentatively compare this to how roman saturn was originally paired with the goddess lua who is offered bloodied weapons of war and linked to death and destruction the dagda's mistress is the daughter of the famorian king in not much is known about her not even her name for certain but that she is the daughter of indec reinforces her underworld connections finally the dogda's typical weapon is probably not a club and certainly not a thunderclub in the earliest sources it is called the lorog aduathmar the dreadful or abominable staff lorug goes back to proto-indo-european lorgos which referred to both clubs and staffs an old gaelic the loddog could refer to a wand or staff of office like a scepter or a staff of columbia a club a hurley stick or really any long-handled wooden implement in translations of greek and roman stories lordog is sometimes used to refer to the caduceus of hermes a story is told of how he obtained this staff after his son kermit was killed by high king luge for having taken his wife the dog to travel all over the world to find a way to bring him back from the dead somewhere in the far east of the world he finds three brothers traveling down a road with their father's great treasures a magic staff a cloak of shape change and a shirt that protects against sickness and sorrow they explain that the staff they carry can kill with one end and revive with the other he asks him if he can see it for a moment and when they hand it to him he strikes them dead with it then he uses it to revive kermit perhaps the world's first highway robbery its furious end was called the anfood and in later sources sometimes the staff itself is called loreg anfoot meaning the furious or stormy staff this meaning of storm is not the heart of the word however which is formed as a negative of fifth meaning calm one end is calm the other is not calm anfood takes the meaning of storm to describe weather which is not calm this is not the description of a lightning weapon but rather it is an artifact that holds the power of life and death in modern scottish gaelic anag is the descendant of anfood it carries the meaning of roaring raging of sea a sea which is not calm but it also means breath lung power the activity of breathing the breath is closely linked to the soul and the force of life certainly the dogdous staff is intended to demonstrate mastery over a spirit force and the power of reincarnation which in turn could be connected to the wind it's very similar in nature to the staff of hermes in a gaelic version of the aeneid it describes mercury's staff in the following way and he brought his wing to staff namely one of the ends is with life and the other end is with death one of the dogda's more secretive names is ed avrith at the beginning of the tale of how he got his staff he proclaims i am a avrith of ace ruid namely the good god of druidism of the tuatha dadanan the mighty one of great knowledge and the horseman great father are my three names a straightforward translation of this name means fire of the eyelid but this is not the true meaning it's explained that aid in this case means i because the eye is the fire of the eyelid in the wasting sickness of kuhlen fan is named as one of the daughters and explained as the tear of the eye the connection between fire and eye seems to be very ancient in celtic thought for the indo-european word for sun soul has become a gaelic word meaning i sool the use of aid in relation to the dogda utilizes the same associations between light fire and sight that lead to the word for sun meaning i various tales are attached to es ruid one of the most repeated is that eitherwood son of badarn father of maha drowned in a shruid giving it the name before this it was said to have been named ace down and this is important because down is one of the epithets commonly given to the dogdah but it is also the name of the god of the house of the dead who is in some cases said to be the son of the daughter now we cannot know for certain that this aid ruid is the same as eid avrith but there is good reason to think so what was special about the falls of ruid known as acero in english is that they were a famous salmon area salmon are linked to knowledge in both gaelic and welsh sources ae through a drown there the dog to proclaim that he dwells there but it is also where the legendary wise man finton machbochra lost his eye in the form of a salmon finton possessed all the knowledge of all the people who had ever been in ireland he had lived for thousands of years taking the form of different animals every time he grew old when he was in the form of a salmon he lapped out of the water at ethruit in the winter and got stuck on the ice an eagle who had also lived since the earliest days came down and ate his eye and ever since he had been one-eyed a separate tale features a different one-eyed salmon who lives in the falls calling himself ghoul meaning one-eyed it isn't a coincidence that the most famous wiseman of ireland loses his eye at a location connected to the dogda and a one-eyed salmon there are echoes here that strongly suggest that this tale has an identical origin with odinn sacrificing his eye and placing it in the well of mimir both of which likely go back to a common indo-european source a tale in the dinshanahas tells how king ekith was one-eyed and had to give up his remaining eye to a trickster who threatened to curse him in indo-european traditions knowledge is related to the underworld in many cases to gain knowledge especially of the future one must journey to the underworld and speak with the dead odysseus does this in the odyssey oh then does this and in gaelic tradition it is said that people would seek out angus the son of the dog to unsow and night at the brew the one night of the year that it was opened and the people would see the children of the dogdah lingering on the grave mounds knowledge was also thought to be concentrated in hazelnuts that grew in the otherworld around the sources of the waters where they would drop into the waters and be eaten by salmon who would then possess all knowledge anyone who caught and ate this salmon would obtain its knowledge cognate tales exist between gaelic welsh slavic and norse about obtaining knowledge from tasting a salmon or dragon while being cooked the dagda is the master of that knowledge but he is a devious god who has many names many forms and many lies cormac's glossary says the following names of the wife of the dogda lie guile and disgrace this is hardly the only example of these qualities being connected to the god one of his homes is meaning belly of lies he lies to elkvar in order to sleep with his wife he coaches his son angus in how to rob the brood either through guile or sword point he kills crindenvel the satirist by sneaking gold into his food causing him to choke to death on it and then he is able to escape punishment through crafty word play he is sent by luge to deceive and delay the fomorian forces and he succeeds in winning the support of the daughter of indec he steals his magical staff by murdering its owners and he steals his harp from the famorian camp he tells aid to take echid by force and imprison her husband he rules over mounds and he destroyed the grains and milk of the gales until they made a treaty with him he is a deceptive god who comes in many forms cloaked hooded with a staff that kills with one end and revives with the other who is a son of art and who is the god who possesses every art and perhaps until now he has succeeded in deceiving a great many people who have been interested in gaelic mythology as to his true nature it is said when the sons of mill reached aaren their sageasity circumvented the tuatha dadanan so that erin was left to the partition of amargan gluenbar son of mill for he was a king poet and a king judge and he divided aaren into two parts and gave the part that was underground to the twathaden and the other part to the sons of mil his own mortal people the tuatha dadan went into the hills and fairy places so that they spoke with the fairy folk underground this period of going underground is connected to the rule of the dogda or his children it is often thought or explained that this is the imposition of christianity which drove the gods of the sky beneath the earth yet it may well have been exactly how this particular branch of gods around the dogda was conceived of to begin with among the greeks there is a god known as polinomos the one of many names the reason he is given many names is because there is a reluctance to use his true name he's instead called things like the wealthy one host of many the unseen one wealthy father killer giver of good counsel receiver of many he holds the great cornucopia of wealth with one hand and a dreadful staff with the other he is called zeus of the earth he rules the invisible world the world that exists behind his cloaking helmet the underworld that god of course is hades brother of zeus ruler of the broad world beneath the earth the unseen realm the dogda is not identical to the greek conception of hades but he does appear to be a ruler of the spirit world and the earth of all places he is most associated with the brug naboinia otherwise called newgrange its gaelic name may originally mean womb of the white cow however that womb is a passageway into the underworld from which spirits emerge at samhain and where within historical memory dead kings were buried that inchenha century says here slept a married pair after the battle of mug turret yonder the great lady and the dark dogged not obscure as a dwelling there the taking of the sheath says then dargon departed from there and the mac org remained in his sheath that is a wondrous land there are three trees perpetually bearing fruit and an ever-living pig and a hoof and a cooked pig and a vessel with excellent liquor and all of this never grows less this is the conception of the otherworld dwelling place of dead kings who are eternally provided for akin to the idea of the dogged as inexhaustible cauldron the fairy mounds that the doctor rules and distributes are mounds of the dead his homes become the homes of kings upon their death unlike in greek tradition that underworld is bright rather than dark and gloomy more akin to the elysian fields but it is an underworld nonetheless this does not appear to be a christianization of the dogda but is his original conception there is a noticeable rift between luge the femorian killer and the family of the dagda not a single one of the dogda's sons participated in the fight against the fomorians save perhaps bov derek meaning red crow who doesn't appear in many of the early sources instead several fought with the famorians bridget was in the camp of the fomorians alongside her husband brass their son ruidan tried to kill the god goevnu and when he was felled by the smith's return blow brigid invented keening a type of mourning for the dead angus machog also fought with the fomorians that inchenha's entry for tuam regen says reagan of the children of impius ham from the army of strong smiting balor was a warrior of prowess and exploits whom none could face in equal battle reagan it was dangerous beyond dispute that engaged the combat he was leader of the retinue of red-armed angus mackindorg with all his army the warrior went his way in good sooth when he had slain the warrior woman to demand an unjust tribute from the host of the gaels through an unrighteous claim there met him face to face unaided the king's son of the gale they fought a stern fight hard by the rock of a sool's son the spot where the fomor's head was struck off it was a doubty deed his called after him tulum regen the annals of thiernach record the following for the year 1084. a great pestilence in this year which killed a fourth of the men of ireland it began in the south and spread throughout the four quarters of ireland this is the cause of that pestilence namely demons that came out of the north islands of the world three battalions and in each battalion there were thirty and ten hundred and two thousand as angus og the son of the dogda told to gilla logan who used to haunt the fairy mounds every year at sowing interesting is that christians in 1084 were so desperate they were seeking out the aid of pagan gods angus was sought for information because he could reveal the knowledge of the other world and he is sought by one who is named the servant of bright lug ogma was said to have written the first auga message in order to warn luge about his wife saying that she will be taken unless the birch guard against it the exact role of the birch here is mysterious but it was used in ancient gaelic purification rites and weddings as medieval accounts say it was placed in the house and its leaves upon the floor on the wedding day we see the same struggle over a wife in welsh myth says wife lodi with flower face who is made of flowers by math and gurion and offered to say as his wife due to his mother's curse against him however she falls in love with grono pepper a name which may mean radiant heron and together they kill him fei is later revived from an oak tree by gwydion and pays the blow back the same myth also appears contained in the tale of the feud between kuhlin and kuroi over blothnet partially cognate with bloody with these stories seem to emulate a myth concerning luge and another god who fight for possession of a goddess of the fertile earth a type of gaelic persephone perhaps the same dynamic exists in slavic folklore in the theft of perun's wife or cattle by velez lord of the underworld it isn't clear there is much space here between the identity of kermit and his father as kermit himself declares when he says i am the son of that dagdah and all the wizardry and magic that he had i have and all the knowledge that he learned from that host i have it [Music] that the tale of luge and kermit may be thought of as an extension of a struggle between luge and the dagda may show up in the tale of lugeth ryunderk a very important high king he kills ferbaija fair ben who had horns growing from his head ferben kills claw through lugeth's mother who is also his wife lugeth hunts him down and strikes him dead upon the summit of slave ullen a passage grave atop the mountain used to be named for him given that down who is clearly identified as a lord of the house of the dead is thought to be a son of the dagdah reinforces the idea that the dogdah is the lord of the underworld and that many of his children have catholic connections the dagda holds great sway over the grains and the milk however he could also have the opposite power the taking of the she there says even though it belonged to the sons of mil after the conquest of the country for the tuatha day destroyed the corn and the milk round about the sons of mill until they made an alliance with the dagda afterwards he saved their corn and milk the power of the she folk over the crops and milk is one of the most attested beliefs of the gales and very similar to the power of germanic elves or dwarfs however we also hear of another figure not in myth so much as in cult practice and christian accounts connected to the crops krom is also asked to preserve crops and milk and is known from a 9th century source as ken crook meaning the head or leader of stack mountain rick or even slaughter eventually he becomes known as crom duel meaning the dark crooked one because ken kruach is appealed to in order to protect milk and grains some have thought this figure may be a representation of the dogda or a god akin to him in living folklore crom du is linked to lu nasa and in the past scholars have recreated a speculative myth about this god one which is likely mistaken this isn't the place to dwell on the nature of crom saved to say that the name krom do is a christian name a name applied to the god to re-label him with a more depreciating name but the god was originally believed to be luminous and represented with a golden image grom is not the dog though they have certain overlapping functions the overwhelming evidence suggests that the dogda was primarily a god of the earth he digs in the earth he ensures the harmony of the seasons the flow of energy of life and time the crops and likely elements of the weather his son aid may have been the altar fire used for sacrifices and the cremation fire which would send the dead to the abode of the dogdah he was also believed to be the origin of music he has long been thought by some to be dis pather of the gauls which julius caesar mentioned or sukelos who holds the great pot and the long shafted hammer however it should not be excluded that such a figure could have been interpreted as mercury the dogday is linked to borders to the heaven and underworld he is the mighty one of great knowledge the son of every art who is a trickster a liar a thief his harp is the origin of music and seasons and he can move between worlds he's chosen as an envoy or a messenger to the femorians and he's a lord of wealth and abundance and carries a staff which gives life with one end and takes it with the other we may have further evidence for how the dog was interpreted by the gaels themselves he may have been equated with the semitic god dagon but another equation may appear in the tale the battle of findhorde where it says they were telling their druids to find out for them what would be the consequences of the battle and which of them would be defeated they offered sacrifices to mars to osiris to jove into apollo these are the sacrifices they offered the flesh of dogs pigs and cats afterwards it went upon the hides of old hairless bulls and on the hurdles of rowan trees and their faces north towards hell in britain node ends cognate with nuada was equated at least sometimes with mars mabon cognate with mack og was matched with apollo yet what gaelic god would be interpreted as osiris what medieval scholars would have known about osiris came from greek sources such as plutarch he describes the symbols of osiris as being an eye and a scepter and he connects him to fertility and death from this list only osiris and jupiter could be interpreted as the dogda but other than the dogged as linked to fertility he does not actually share structural similarities to jupiter the nature of the dog is perhaps best put in the text the fitness of names dagda that is the good god he was an excellent god of the gentiles for the tuatha dadanan worshiped him for he was a god of the earth to them for the greatness of his power echith that is greater was he than his father or o a great father to the tuatha de danan was he ruid roe fessa that is it was he who had all of the knowledge of the gentiles and it was he who had the three multiple forms a god of knowledge of harvest of seasons of harmony and music the good god of druidism the great god of existence the lord of the earth i hope you liked this video and if you did please like share and subscribe and consider supporting me through patreon or paypal your support helps me to make in-depth videos like this that take immense amounts of research and time to put together your support is very much appreciated and as always stand tall [Music] you

Channel: Fortress of Lugh

Views: 509,245

Keywords: Celtic mythology, Gaelic Mythology, Mythology, myths, Eochaid Ollathair, Ruad Rofessa, Ruad Rofhessa, Ancient history, Irish gods, Celtic gods, Celtic, Celts, Horned Man, Fer Benn, Druids, Druid god, gods, paganism, pagan gods

Id: 62DBOC5CQGo

Length: 63min 31sec (3811 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 22 2022