Proinsias MacCana, Hamlyn, 1973 (1970)

This, at least the edition I have, is a coffee table book, a big book with lots of white space and many large illustrations. The text, thus, strikes the eye at first sight as almost of peripheral importance.

The introduction starts with the thought, later repeated that the ancient Celts were a cultural rather than a racial grouping. There is the standard description of Celtic expansion and then of the impact of Rome and later conquerors of Celtic lands, the oral nature of pagan Celtic literature, the triad of earliest sources: inscriptions, staues and comments in Greek and Latin.

"By way of contrast, the recorded testimony of Irish literature is later by a millennium or more, but, as we have seen, it has a conservative quality which more than outweighs the disparity of date." (pp. 16-17)

The heroic Ulster cycle is contrasted with the lower class fianaigheacht whose protaganists are more hunters than warriors.

He mentions Marie-Louise Sjoestedt's, "'LEABHAR GABHALA is the mythological pre-history of the country and the DINNSHENCHAS its mythological geography.'" (p. 17)

He mentions the tension between diversity and unity in Celtic mythology and unity, responding to extreme views of unicity with, "Indeed one cannot but reflect that if the Celts were monotheists at heart, then they were remarkably successful in disguising this fact, for not merely have they fractured their single godhead into a multiplicity of aliases, but they have also invested some of these with a convincing air of individuality." (p. 24)

He compares and contrasts the gods of Gaul with those of the insular Celts.

Caesar's account has been impunged on two main grounds: first, that it implies, erroneously, the existence of a pantheon of gods worshipped more or less universally throughout Gaul, and, secondly, that it enunciates a clear differentiation of divine function for which there is no evidence in Celtic tradition. To note these twin objections is, in effect to state the central problem of Celtic mythology. (P. 23)

Donn, god of the dead, is equated with Caesar's Dis Pater, seen as the divine ancestor of the Gauls. "This idea of common descent from a divine ancestor is of course a familiar, one might almost say essential, element of Celtic ideology. It was the normal thing for an Irish tribe to trace its genealogy to an eponymous or other divine ancestor, and some deities like Lugh are the reputed progenitors of many widely scattered peoples." (p. 42)

After mentioning horned gods such as Cernunos, MacCana proceeds to the concept of triads. "Where they bear the same name, the members of the triad are formally differentiated by epithet or attribute: where the names differ, they share a functional identity." (p. 48) He discusses then deities of topographical function and animate aspects of divinity.

The second major section of the book is titled "The Tuatha De Danann" and looks at the LEABHAR GABALA EIREANN and THE SECOND BATTLE OF MAG TUIREDH. This latter refers to vital concepts such as kingly hospitality and the effect of poetic satire. (p. 57) He mentions various understandings of the mythological content in these sources such as the conflict between a younger and older ruler, theomachy and Dumezil's view of the tripartite function of Indo-European society. "Among the Celts the stratification of Indian society is closely paralled by the early irish classification of druids, warrior nobles (flatha) and freemen (bo/-airigh), which in turn corresponds to Caesar's division of Gaulish society into druides, equites and plebs." (p. 60)

The otherworldly characteristics of the Tuatha De Danann who agreed to live underground in the sidh mounds, their living, "'Without grief, without sorrow...without age, without corruption of the earth," "The relativity of time and space," connected with them, "Their control of magic," are mentioned. (p. 65)

And we glimpse: the Daghda with, "His club and cauldron," and humourous aspect, Nuada and manannan mac Lir, "'The rider of the crested sea.'" (p. 72)

The third chapter considers "The Gods of Britain," as discussed in the four branches of the Mabinogi: the account of Donn's family, equated with Danann, the family of Pwyll and Pryderi. Among the interesting points here is the identification of Don with Irish Danu (p. 76) and Manawydan with Mananna/n in name but with some divergence of legend. (pp. 79-80)

The fourth chapter looks at the goddesses of the insular Celts, including Medhbh, the Morrighan, Macha, "Who gave her name to Emhain Macha, capital of the ancient province of Ulster" (p. 90) and goddesses of sovereignty.

The fifth section briefly surveys surviving Irish tales beginning with the Tain and its remhsce/la and then moving into the cycle of Finn. "The members of the Fian were hunters as well as fighters and this lends their adventures a greater mobility and freedom than is found in the Ulster tales." "They move throughout the length and breadth of Ireland -- and into Gaelic Scotland -- in pursuit of their quarry, delighting in the exhileration of the chase and in the endless variety of their natural surroundings." (p. 108)

There follow a few pages on Celtic sacral kingship, though, "It need hardly be stressed that the sacral kingship and the sacred marriage of king and goddess are not peculiarly Celtic, the former being more or less universal and the latter well attested from India and the Near East" (p. 121). The otherworld, life after death, with its references to the Voyage of Bran, to Samhain, "A time apart which was charged with a peculiar preternatural energy" (p. 127), and to the Welsh Annwn.

The book concludes by considering the survival of the pagan tradition in Christian garb, St. Brigid, "The Christian metropolis of Ard Macha was sited within two miles of Emhain Macha, etc." (p. 131).

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