III. The Clan of the Good Mother/Mother Goddess

Celtic religion, traditions, art and world-view

(The Celtic Legends and their Magyar parallels)

The Celtic legends are the product of a Clan-system which had an expressedly "animistic" world view. Celtic traditions are rooted in an animistic belief system (a belief, that every object has a soul, or a belief in spirits.) The Otherworld is interwoven with the world of mortals in every aspect of life: spirits, fairies, heroes and gods regularly make connections with the people; the omens of the elements determine the fate of plants, animals and people - as we read in Caitlin and John Matthews "The Great Handbook of Celtic Wisdom".[48] The authors state:

"We can hardly doubt that the majority of early Celtic clans had a shamanistic culture. In time a Táltos caste took the place of the early 'professional' shamans (FILIDH). They were the Druids, who were Táltos-priests, physicians, scientists at the same time and were surrounded by deep respect. The earlier Shaman worldview lived on, mostly in the songs of the bards, the Old-Irish AOS DANA (Magyar danos) and even within the families, in their superstitions".

"The Celtic Druids were a "non Arian priesthood " says Sir John Rhys. Julius Pokorny, a linguist from Vienna, wrote the following in his article in the Revue Celtic (On the Origins of Druidism):

"The Druids represent a religion that has many characteristics which are in essence foreign to the Indo-European belief system"[49]

The Celtic religion is "heroic': Heroes are gods and gods are heroes.[50] To the Celts their gods were not their creators but were considered to be their ancestors, or - in other words - some supernatural heroes.[51] Apart from this, in the light of today's researches, the Celts were Monotheistic, like the Magyars[52], or, as Origenes of Alexandria (185-254 A.D.), the leader of the Christian school confessed:

"The Celtic Druids prayed to one God, even before the birth of Jesus, so the Celts were ready made for Christianity based upon the teachings of the Druids, who preached the belief in one God."[53]

A "triune world" formed the Universe of their belief system through the Druid representation of ideal, Hungarian: ész, eszme, Celtic: EISCE, or IS EARD (Hungarian: ért-elme), in view of the wisdom, knowledge, fore-telling of the future and poetry's highest level (IS EARD, értelme = the meaning of something). There was the Upper World, where the "upper" God (DONN, OR DUINN - Hungarian - Ten) and his entourage (SUN, MOON, STARS) lived, the Middle World, the visible world of mortals, and a Lower World, the world of the ancestors, which was protected by a "lower" god. The three worlds were connected by a Tree of Life, more accurately, this was their axis, upon which the Druid (Hungarian - Táltos Irish DIAIL) was able to rise into the upper world of God, or descend into the lower empire of their ancestors. The Celtic Druid (Torda), during his altered state (Ir: RAMHAILLE - Hu: révülés) always rested his back against a big tree (a substitute for the Tree of Life). The tree can also be replaced by a men-hir. On top of the imaginary Tree of Life (BILE), in its crown, lived the Good God (DAGDA).[54] Dagda lived on top of such a large oak-tree even in their home in Asia Minor.[55] Dagda, according to todays spelling Daghdha, was the 'Good God' (DAGH-(A)DHA, (Jó-atya ~ Édesatya = Good Father in Hungarian). (See also Irish: AITE - foster-father, Old Irish DAGH > Welsh IACH > and Hungarian Magyar JO). From him all the Irish were descended and so he is the Father of all Irish, and the child of more ancient Gods. His mother was DANU the Mothergod, Mother Earth, his father BEL, the Emperor of the World of the Dead. DANU means Good Mother, DEA-ANU (Jó Anya in Hungarian, in ancient Irish DAGH > in Irish DEA and the other name or ANU, the Mother Goddess in Cormac's Glossary: Mater Deorum Hibernensium the Mother of the Gods of Ireland).[56].

The Celtic Tree of Life

Returning to the altered state (révülés), it is interesting that the word for this trance-travel is connected with the idea of a 'ferryman', révész in Hungarian, (RAMHAI in Irish). So, during the révülés, the Druid "rowed" - according to his desire and will - into another world: RÁMH-AÍ, Rév-ész in Magyar (=ferryman) RÁMH-A-IGH evezni (to row) > RÁMH-AIL-LE, Hungarian rév-ül-és (an altered state of consciousness).

According to TALIESIN, the Celtic-Brit minstrel with a Táltos mind: "The Tree of Life, the Axis of the World, connects Heaven (NEAMH, menny) and Earth (FÓD, főd)." The Tree of Life (World-Tree) is always in the center of the world. God lives above this World-Center. The Axis which cuts through the World-Center leads directly to God. The Tree of Life is destined to be substituted by the World Axis itself, through the workings of the huge tree which was chosen by the Druid. The Center of the World always coincides with the spiritual center of the Táltos - this is the center of the "magic circle", where the center is the Táltos himself, as he leans with his back to the Tree of Life (or any large tree which symbolises it). In this case the Druid - who could be man or woman alike(!) - just like in the case of the Magyar Táltos - was transfigured, became one with the Tree of Life. The RAMH AILLE , révülés, spiritual travel, could begin at this point.

The following lines come from a poet of the Middle Ages, demonstrating clearly this altered state:

"Colorful salmon leap from the white sea's womb
yes, they are calves, brown sheep that you behold,
Meek, they don't kill one another
Even though a horseherd shows himself
on Mell's blooming meadow,
over which many Taltos-horses gallop,
but you cannot see these"[57]

As I mentioned before, in the Celtic Upper World, in Heaven (NEAMH, menny) God lives, who was called DUINN (see the Székely TEN, Etruscan TIN). In one of the oldest Celtic-Brit legends, he was called TEEGERNONOS, his Majesty the King,[58] and maybe even TE(N)GRI (?). The etymology of this name is supposedly TE(N), or TI(N) ~ DU-INE person + GER great, mighty, gar + NON- ~ NEAMH Heaven (Menny in Hungarian), 'A Heavenly mighty person'(?). He himself is the "light" (világ, fény in Hungarian) called BEL. His holiday is BELTENE, the "fire of light', the light from Heaven, the Lord of Heaven, the world beyond our human world. His symbol is the TURUL-bird, the griffin, the dragon. His wife is Mother Earth, called ANU (see Hungarian Anya, Eneh, Etruscan UNI), whom her Magyar-Celtic-Etruscan sons symbolise as a doe with antlers. She is the "mother" of humans, the beloved Lady, Ancient Mother of this earthly domain.

The Celtic Lower World was the world of their ancestors. There, on the lower branches of the Tree of Life - which was its lower top - (in some stories it is the base of the tree) sat the King of the world of the ancestors, their guardian, a wise and secretive figure, who was always represented in a Turkish, or Buddha-like sitting posture, with antlers on his head. He is the Green Man,[59] who is accompanied by a pack of white dogs with red ear-tips and, sometimes, he even breaks into the world of humans. He is the protector of wanderers and the guardian of the wisdom of the ancients. He permits the access to ancient wisdom. He is probably the most ancient being in the World. Because of his great age, nobody can tell where he came from or when he was born. In Celtic times, he appeared as a Deer-God. Some call him "Cernunnos" even though this name is none other than a scientific assumption (invention), which is based upon a partly transcribed script.[60] The figure of the Deer God's image carved into stone was inherited from Gaul, from the Roman era and, today, it is kept in the Museé de Cluny in France. The inscription reads: ERNUNNOS. This was changed by the diligent scientists to Cernunnos (because they missed the initial 'K' sound when they saw the antlers). [This is the word the brave scientists "doctored" after they saw the antlers, because, in their "judgment." a letter 'k' was needed, but missing from the beginning of the word]. This is one way of writing history. Following this the more ambitious linguists promptly began to etymologize this word and suggested that "Cer" was probably the same as the Indoeuropean root-word "ker", meaning "to grow"; so Cernunnos is the God, who may be connected with the forces of growth, which appear in the form of antlers on his head.[61] So one falsification was not enough (adding a letter "C" to the beginning of the name); the Indo-Germanic linguists invented along with it a whole series of (children's) stories. This is the objective historical writing which is so admired by the Hungarian Finno-Ugrists and which they follow blindly.

The Gallic ERNUNNOS is identical to the Breton AROÚN and the Welsh ARAWN, the King of the Otherworld, who guards the cauldron of rebirth. The Irish call him UR-DUINE "Green Man'. When we hear the Irish name URDUINE we probably don't err, if we think of the Magyar word URDUNG (= devil, which was declared as "origin unknown").

In the center of the Celtic Lower World was the Well of Knowledge (SEG AIS = well Welsh: OES, Irish: AOIS = ancestor, Hungarian: ŐS and GAOIS = knowledge, Hungarian: okosság), which was protected by Ernunnos, the Green Man. Even though the knowledge of the ancients is immeasurable, it still fits into a nutshell - states the Irish tradition. The Well of Knowledge of the ancients springs forth from the Lower World, the knowledge of those ancients who stood at the cradle of the Irish people.[62] Behind the Green Man always stands the figure of the great Ancient Mother ANU - the Great Madonna of Light - a mighty being "carved of living stone", who gives power. From the well, seven Rivers of Life spring forth. These flow in the Lower World and broaden as rainbows into the Upper World, and then continue, unchanging, into the starry sky. In the rainbow rivers [reside] the totem animals (the helpers of the Táltos), [i. e.] the spirits of the ancients[].

Let us familiarise ourselves with these Celtic totem animals:

Celtic: AG or SAILETHEACH = deer (Ir: SAIL = branch SAIL-ET-EACH, Hu: ágas). Fionn, a hero, whose name means white, shiny (fehér, fényes) had a wife in the otherworld, called SABHA (?> SÁBH to cut, szab, vág = to cut --> SÁIBLE, SZABLYA = saber). She always appeared before her husband in the form of a deer. The importance of the deer becomes even more pronounced when we take into consideration that, in the Celtic languages, it has more than ten names and it is always a "lead-animal" on the road to the Otherworld. It was also the deer that directed the "home occupation". Dames, an English historian - who wrote lengthy studies about Avebury and Silbury's Stone Age monuments in Southern England - proved that, just like the Sumerians two-thousand years earlier, the inhabitants of Southern England also considered the deer[63] to be the Mother Goddess, around 2,000 B.C. - and just like the Hungarians too!

Silbury Hill is the highest monument erected by the people of the European New Stone Age. It is a giant kurgan, dedicated to the Mother Goddess, and an antler was unearthed from its center. In the town of Abbots Bromley, in the County of Staffordshire this deer-myth is still alive. Thousands of tourists are drawn here on September 4 to see the "dance of the deer" which men dance with deer-antlers on their heads. This dance is a prayer to the Great Old Mother and, in reality, it is a fertility dance, and it commemorates the ancestors at the same time. Even though the Christian Church forbade this practice and threatened excommunication, this ancient Celtic tradition still survived.

In the ancient part of the city of Zürich, archeologists unearthed a Celtic gold plate which shows a Deer surrounded by the Sun, Stars and the Moon. Deer-representations can be followed from England to Hungary, on belt-buckles, vases and pottery. We cannot exclude the possibility - says the Lexicon dealing with Celtic mythology - that the "stiff" deer representations of the late Celtic times in Hungary are the fore-runners of the well known deer-motifs of Hungarian folk art.[64]

LOTH (lóh) or EACH (ax) are in Hungarian ló, kasza. LÓ, KASZA. Horses had a central role in Celtic mythology. In one Celtic legend, the "white horse" knows the road to the Otherworld and is "a reliable guide." The Celts sacrificed a white horse to God. They skinned the sacrificed horse and hung the skin onto a tall pole, symbolizing that it ascended to God. We find horses in all aspects of Celtic life, from every-day chores to the wars and horse-burials. To harm a horse intentionally, or to kill it, brought the most horrendous punishment upon the perpetrator.

SEABHAC = falcon, solyom in Hungarian (literally "the whistling, whizzing"). The high flying falcon is the symbol of God. A falcon decorated the helmets of the Celtic warriors - this can be seen in the Celtic find of Csomaköz, Hungary - because it was the symbol of Hadúr, the Lord of Battle who helped in battles. The falcon (God himself) told the Druid, Fintan, the history of the world from the beginning of beginnings.

IOLAR (pron. ílér) sas (ülü) = eagle. King Arthur's discussion with the eagle is well known. In reality, the eagle is his nephew, Ewilod, who tells him about the Otherworld. This discussion unwittingly reminds us of the discourse between the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Furthermore, in another legend, the eagle of Cogwry knows the road to Mabon the (Son-) God. Maelduin became acquainted with an eagle, which, after bathing in the water of a lake became young again.

MACHA is a sow (MUC = piglet). The 10th century Cormac Glossary Kerid'wen connects the sow with the goddess of "the cauldron of wisdom." According to the book about the settling of Ireland, she was the fourth ANU, and wife of Nemed. She had to participate in a horse race and died as a consequence. Before she died, she gave birth to twins. She is buried in the Macha kurgan of Emain. In the Protestant church of Armagh (AR MACHA) there is a statue - which is hard to date - of a woman with large breasts, encircled with light, positioned next to the Sungod. She is dressed as a warrior and clearly has horse-ears. Since times immemorial, the locals have called her Macha/Emse. One of the manifestations of MACHA - EM(E)SE, the great Mother Goddess, is the trinity of sacral Kingship, battle and fertility.[65]

BRIONN-FHIONN is the 'grayling', a fish related to the trout. It represents wisdom and the gathering of knowledge, since it constantly swallows the nut-shell which stores the ancient wisdom. It lives in the lake on the shore of which the nine nut-trees of Knowledge grow. Minstrel Fionn MacCumhail gained all his knowledge by eating this fish in a feast that was prepared by Fintan for the druids.

DRUID-DUBH is a blackbird, which is also called the bird of the Goddess RIGAN-TONA. Her song makes the people become intoxicated and fall asleep. It was she who sang on the island of Gwales too, where Bran (see below) and his seven companions spent 72 years in this altered state; during this time they did not grow older and did not realize the passing of time. It is in this manner that the blackbird can pass on the deep secrets of the Otherworld to her listeners and bring messages from there when she begins her magic song at sunset.

CARÓGG (Irish) and BRAN (Welsh) (FRAO in Breton) is a crow that foretells the future and brings bad luck. One of the greatest heroes of the Celtic "Gods" was Bran, who died a hero's death in a battle. In his legend, we can read that, when he was mortally wounded, he revealed to his companions the secret of his "divine" origin and asked them to cut off his head and bury him in London, (in front of Luan-Dún Lugh "God's homestead") in the kurgan called White Hill (today the Tower of London stands on this site), so that he might guard London and protect it for eternity from any outside harm. There is a legend that, if the crows (Bran) leave the Tower, the British Empire will collapse. Today, in London, opposite the Tower, a battleship symbolically guards the British-(Celtic) capital. The horn of Bran is one of the holiest relics of the British Celts.

CÚ (dog, kutya in Hungarian) and AB ACH (eb in Hungarian). CRUA-CHÚ the red dog (CRÓ blood CRUA red) is the guardian of the Otherworld. The word for dog, CU (kutya), is part of the name of the Celtic hero CUCHULAINN (= "Culainn's" Dog). The story relates that Setanta, when he was still a child, killed (?) the guard-dog of Culainn, the smith (who was a Táltos!). The deed was committed in a very unusual way, because Setanta killed the dog by kicking his ball into the open mouth of the dog. At this point he took over the role of the dog and changed his name, thus his grown-up name became Cú-Culainn, in other words the Dog of Culainn. There, obviously, the child Setanta "becomes one" with the Dog (the totem animal of the clan) so that he might become a man and so that the strength of the dog might protect and help him (- initiation). The monk in the Middle Ages, who recorded the legend (copied it or transcribed it), did not understand the meaning of the ancient legend - since idealism was never the strength of the Roman Christian Church.

As we can see, there are many Celtic legends still alive in the British Isles. The legend of Saint Columba is also based upon an ancient Celtic motif. The saintly missionary wanted to build a church on the island of Iona but everything he built during the day collapsed by night. One day Saint Columba saw a "biast" on the shore. This was a being, half woman and half fish, which, when it came ashore and shook its scales, caused the entire island of Iona to tremble. It gave out a sound at the same time, which was like the clinking of pottery-pieces. The monk then asked the extraordinary being if she caused the crumbling of the church-walls. The "biast" of course answered yes but, at the same time, she taught Columba what he should do. The antidote was very simple. It was known from the Great Wall of China to the Castle of Déva in the Carpathian Basin and the full length and breadth of the Scythian lands: he had to ask the builders the next day, who was willing to volunteer to be walled in alive.[66]

The parallels between the Hungarian and Celtic legends and their common motifs appear in an exemplary manner in the Atilla-Arthur legends (> the Sword of God). I will not deal with this separately here. I will mention as a point of interest that the British artist E. Burne-Jones, when painting the picture of the death of King Arthur, placed the Hungarian Holy Crown next to the Celtic Arthur's bed as he lay dead (instead of Arthur's possession, the Holy Grail). The pictures title is: "The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon".[67] Atilla and Arthur were contemporaries.

E. Burne Jones: The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon. From the book by Michael Parker: King Arthur. Notice the Hungarian Holy Crown at the bottom of the painting [The image of the painting in the book appears to have been inadvertently left-right reversed. The correct detail is shown below.]

A new chapter in the Celtic legends is the theme of the so called Home-Occupation. The Irish legends talk of several such occupations coming from the East. The later Christian chroniclers gave biblical ancestors to the main characters of these occupations and thus replaced the memories of the ancestors with a new spiritual heritage. Thus the "Lebor Gabála Erenn" was born, the occupation of Ireland. Unreliable scribes who copied the text made the story even more colorful and so the original meaning was made hazy[68] - and it is clear that the same happened with the Magyar ancient Gesta. The only question that remains is whether these "interferences" were directed and planned or not. Don't look for malevolence where stupidity is a sufficient explanation - states one of Murphy's laws. So lets not look further...

The notion of Homeland Occupation is maintained only by the Hungarian and the Irish, and the formation of the homeland in both the Magyar and Irish Chronicles is mentioned as "Home-Occupation" (Gabála). In Irish, GABH means the same as the Hungarian kap, megkap, megkaparint, elfog, elfoglal, in English to take, get, capture.

The Magyar chronicles usually talk about two conquests; the Képes Krónika also mentions the settling of the Celts. The Magyar ancient Gesta, which survived in a Turkish translation called the Tárih-i Üngürüsz, mentions five Conquests - or establishments of a homeland. It emphasizes in each of these Conquests, that the newcomers found ancestors in the Carpathian Basin who spoke the same language as the conquerors. This image is characteristic of the Celtic Conquests also.

Three Irish legends preserve the memory of these occupations: in one we learn of the occupation of the people of Mil, in the second we learn about the story of Tuan, and in the third Fintan tells the real history of Ireland.

The conquest of the Miles

The people of the leader MIL are called by historians the Miles, who completed the last conquest (Gabala, megkapás, megkaparintás in Hungarian). Mil set off from Iberia with 36 ships to try to conquer Ireland. According to the chronicle of Isidor of Seville, (6th century A.D.), Ireland's Latin name "Hibernia" originated from Iberia's name. The Lexicon of Celtic Mythology writes the following about the leader, Mil: "Mil, son of Bile, whose full name is Mil Espaine (Spanish soldier), and in other writings his "real" name is GALAM, calls his people the clan of BREOGAIN (trout). The explanation of this name as Spanish soldier is only a scribal reasoning. The base of this is the similarity of the names Mil and the Latin "miles" and the constant need to explain on the part of the monks who wrote the chronicles, which also caused a lot of damage and mis-explanations in the Magyar chronicles.

According to the Book of the Conquest, Mil was the father of seven sons, and later of eight sons. The people of Mil consisted of the alliance of seven clans and he became the head of this alliance. At the time of his election he was lifted up on a shield according to Celtic custom. We have no information about the names of the leaders of these clans but the Chronicle of Conquest saved the names of their wives for posterity: Tea, Fial, Fás, Liben, Ódba, Scota [and] Scéne. The Miles' Druid, Amairgin, enumerates in his poem the names of the women and also the names of the leaders. According to this, Tea was the wife of Éremón, the equestrian; Fial, the warrior lady, was married to Luigaid; Fás was married to Unmac Uicce; Scéne herself was married to Amairgin; Liben to Duke Fuad; Odba's husband is not mentioned. Scota was the widow because she was Mil's wife. Scota later moved to Scotland. The chroniclers, the "knowledgeable compilers" stated that the name Scota is derived from the name of the Scythians, who lived on the northern shore of the Black Sea.[69] Well, it is possible that these "knowledgeable compilers" (?) did not err this time. Many geographic names bear the names of the wives of these leaders all over Ireland. (Scota took her name to Scotland).

Mil in reality had two sons: Éber and Éremón. According to the researchers of the chronicles, these names were formed with the same alliterative method (the same sound appears at the beginning of two words which follow one another, or sometimes they appear and are repeated or harmonize within the word) as it can be found in the stories of "conquests" in other regions of the world, as the names of brothers (see Ed and Edömén, or Hunor-Magor in Magyar origin sagas.[70])

Mil did not live to see the Conquest completed - like the Magyar leader Álmos [just as the magyar Álmos did not (live to see the Conquest completed)] - this was accomplished by his sons. Battles in connection with the Conquest are not mentioned in the Chronicle. Tuatha Dé Dannan (the clan of the Goddess Danu) attempted to resist with magic (the Druids) and successfully prevented the landing of the Miles. So the attackers resorted to a trick; they feigned retreat behind the ninth wave, where the magic of the Druid Tuatha Dé Dannan could not reach them, and they landed unexpectedly in two different spots in the North and the South and, in the battle of Tailtiu, the people of the Mother Goddess were defeated. Following this, the people of Tuatha De Dan-nan "retreated into the SIDHS (burial mounds)." The brothers Éber and Éremón divided Ireland with brotherly justness into two parts, into the northern and southern part.[71] There was no fratricide.

The story of Tuan MacCarill (or Cairell) MacMuredach

TUAN, was the central hero, son of Cairell. Tuan, the old warrior, who was a nephew of Partholon, tells the story of Saint-Finnian (who lived around 579 A.D.). According to legend, Tuan was the oldest person in Ireland, because he had survived all five Conquests in the form of different animals. Always, when some new "people" arrived on the Irish Isle, Tuan assumed the image of a different animal. Before the transformation, Tuan always retreated into his house in the region of Cuige Ulaidh - the Duke Oled's (Ulster) province, "Előd-hon" in Hungarian. Tuan arrived in Ireland with Partholon and was the son of Partholon's brother. Partholon was supposedly born with one eye and, because of this, in his ancestral land (Sicily or somewhere in the land of the Greeks), he could not become King. For this reason, he set sail with his people to search for a new home. Tuan narrates the story of the first Conquest in the following way: 312 years after the Flood, Partholon, who was the son of Sera, started out with 24 couples. After they had settled, their clan quickly grew to 5,000 people. After a lost battle at the hands of the Fomorians, which was followed by tremendous destruction and butchery, all of them died, with one exception. Only Tuan survived. After this, Ireland remained "empty" for 22 years.

It was then that the people of Nemed arrived. NEMED was the son of Argoman. His name means holy, noble.[72] Nemed's people wandered about at the beginning for a year and a half, in the Caspian Sea, then, after many hardships, they arrived in Ireland with 34 boats and 30 men in each boat. At the arrival of Nemed, Tuan realized, in his dream, that he had turned into a deer. In the form of a deer, he awaited the arrival of Nemed's people. After these brave warriors from the East had landed - according to Tuans poem:

These men from the East set off for a hunt with their lances which never missed their target[73] but, when the "sons" of Nemed started to chase after the deer (Tuan), he grew mighty antlers and his heart was rejuvenated too. So Nemed's sons could not kill the Magic Deer. He, on the other hand, led them to the place of their settlement (occupation).

The Magic Deer motif of the Magyars appears in this Irish legend. Soon after they settled, under the leadership of the Magic Deer, the people of Nemed increased their number to 4030 couples. Nemed defeated the Fomorians in three battles and killed two of their kings. They cultivated seventeen meadows and enriched Ireland with four fish-ponds; in addition, they also built two royal strongholds. When all this was completed, Nemed became ill and soon died. The people were left without a leader and the Fomorians defeated them and imposed enormous taxes. They had to give them two-thirds of their grain and milk harvest. For this reason, Nemed's sons revolted but they were defeated and butchered and only a boat-full of people escaped. The descendants of these refugees, like the Fir Bolg and the later Tuatha Dé Dannan people, returned to recapture their rightful possession, as descendants of Nemed (cf. the return of the Magyars to reclaim their homeland).

Nemed's wife was Macha the Em(e)se, who - even though she was expecting - was forced by the enemy to participate in a horse race, which caused her death. Before her death she gave birth to two boys (cf. Hunor and Magor of the Magyars). From the womb of "Eme(e)se" the two sons of Nemed were born, who later became the rulers of the two peoples known as the descendants of Nemed. The earlier descendants of Nemed who had fled, now returned and arrived as the bellicose Fir Bolg (the Hunor branch) and as the Táltos Tuatha Dé Dannan (Magor branch) to reoccupy their homeland with the power of arms.

After the destruction of Nemed's people Tuan again retreated into his cave/house to hide from the "wolves". One day he realised that his body had changed again and that he was rejuvenated. He knew that the descendants of Nemed had returned. Tuan changed into a boar this time. The Fir Bolg arrived, men in trousers like "balloons, or sacks." They lived in Ireland as long as it was livable. The five sons of Delgas, the leaders (princes) of the Fir Bolg people, divided the Irish isle among themselves (the five divisions still remain today) and introduced the Kingship as a new form of government. (CEANN = fejedelem or kán, = prince, khan). The name of their first King, according to the Chronicle, was Eochaid macErc who was well suited for this honor. The name Fir Bolg, according to some linguists, was derived from a word meaning wide pants, wide trousers. Others believe the meaning, which was described by O'Flaherty, in the 17th century, may be connected with the Celts, who came over from Belgium, around 100 B.C.[74] The name Belgium was derived from the name of the Bolg clan.

The people of Tuatha Dé Dannan arrived with the fourth wave of conquest, under the rule of the Fir Bolg people. The people of the Goddess Danu/Anu completed the penultimate mythical conquest of Ireland, which is recorded in the Book of the Conquest of Ireland.[75] The people of the TUATHA clan Dé divine DANA- AN, the Good-mother - according to legend - arrived from a totally unknown place to the Irish Island and

"nobody knows their origin, not even the scholars, but presumably they arrived from the Sky, because they were so intelligent, so wise and knew so much" - writes the chronicler.

Tuan assumed the form of the falcon, because the Tuatha Dé Dannan were the people of the Falcon (God). The clan of the Good-Mother took over the power on the island from the hands of the Fir Bolg people and introduced the "Táltos-Kingship". The Táltos-King, elected by the people, could occupy his throne, only if he was physically and spiritually adequate for his role. He had to go through different trials (for electing the King).[76] The people of Tuatha Dé Dannan were the creators of Druidism (Táltos priesthood). The Druids (Torda) had four very important relics: the stone of Fái, Lugh's spear that cannot miss the target, Nuadu's frightful sword and Daghdha's cauldron that was eternally full. The people of the Good-Mother/Mother Goddess gave us all the "modern" deities of Celtic mythology - Dagda, the Good God; Goibniu, the smith; Ogma, the Sky-god; Lug, the youth-God; Birgit, the Goddess of Dawn; Macha, the Emse; Morrigan, the Goddess of healing wells (borvizek in Hungarian); the counterpart of the god Borvo, etc. The people of Fir Bolg did not easily abdicate their role of leadership and a battle with weapons ensued between the two brotherly peoples. The Battle of Mag Tuired (of the "dry-meadow") was lost by the Fir Bolg people even though they succeeded in cutting off the right arm of Nuadu, who was a Tuatha Dé Dannan King. Later the King's smiths replaced it with an arm made of silver (since he could not have remained king without the right arm). The griffin and ivy motifs arrived in the British Isles with this clan of Gods.

The fifth Conquest was the conquest of the people of Mil. During this age, Tuan lived in the image of a trout (pér) or salmon BREOGAIN clan). Tuan assumed the form of a man again when Saint Patrick (Naomh = Nemes Padraig) brought in the Faith to Ireland.

The story of Fintan

The third saga that talks about the Irish conquests is connected with the story of Fintan. The title of the chapter is: "The story of the division of Tara's house." The Great King Di-armauid MacCerball wanted to divide the country between his subjects but nobody in his household knew how to divide it. For this reason, the King searched for the oldest man in his kingdom, Fintan MacBóchra, who, in the legend, was one of Noahs grandchildren, to narrate the "true story" of Ireland. This is written in The Yellow Book of Lencan. Fintan remembered seven conquests.

First, he tells about the first division of Ireland. Ui Neill called a meeting (szer in Hungarian) at Magh Bregh ("Pusztamező"). Here, the assembled people agreed that the location of Tara, the capital city, was not advantageous, even though it lay on a flatland and one could see from here in seven directions, but there was not even one castle, worthy of entertaining all the men and women of Ireland, every three years.

The Chronicler writes about the division of Ireland on that certain "dry meadow". (Pusztaszer in Hungarian, where the members of the Magyar Conquest held their first meeting in Hungary.) They assigned land to every leader (BRIOD) and they assigned to every county a mountain-chain (BARR, Hu: bérc), one ridge (TULAN, Hu: dűlő), a larger river (AUB), a mountain-pass (BRIO see Hu: VER-ecke, BER-eck), a grassy pasture (FÉARACH - Hu: füves) and a seashore (PORT, Hu: part). They decided upon the location of TARA, the royal seat. The Hill of UISNECH became the sacred place of Ireland, the center of the Druids. In Uisnech they assigned a well to everyone, a FORRACH (Hu: forrás)."This was a wise division," reported the Chronicler in Fintans words. They succeeded in dividing Ireland into five parts with the border lines following the roads.[77] The mountaintop of every region pointed to Uisnech, where they even cut every stone into five parts.

Then Fintan tells the memories of the Conquests.

According to one variation the first Conquest was led by Lady Cessair, who was the daughter of Noahs son, Bith (her name is not mentioned in the Bible). Cessair, after a seven year journey, arrived with her folk on the Irish Island. Cessair's husband was Fintan himself, who had the title of BREHON (Hu: Bíró). Bearing this title, he lived through many governments of Ireland until the arrival of Patrick and, as chief magistrate, he made decisions about everybody's land.[78] Lady Cessair and Fintan had a son named ILLAN. The first conquest has another variation also, according to which the leader, Cessair, was a man, who came from the East. His entourage consisted of his wife, the daughter of Bith, their 50 daughters and another three men. One day, there was a great flood and only Fintan was able to escape, in such a manner, that: "he lived through the flood with Tul Tuinde, under the water."

Later, he enumerates the already mentioned conquests, and he repeats one of them - FIR BOLG's conquest - in order to obtain the magical number seven.

After this, Fintan also relates an origin saga, namely: after the building of Nimrod's tower and the confusion of languages, they went to Egypt upon the invitation of the Pharaoh. According to Fintans story, after they left Egypt, the Celts wandered toward the North and back to the Caucasus, and later, embarking upon ships, they crossed the sea "which is called the Caspian Sea and arrived in Scythia and India", and later they moved to the Malus maeotis (> Palus maeotis, in Hungarian: meotiszi mocsár, öböl = the Marsh of Meotis).

If we take into account the sections of the Conquest, we can state that the Celtic "ancient home" may have been on the southern slopes of the Caucasus. Before their move to Egypt, one (ancient) Celtic clan separated from them and, under the leadership of Lady Cessair, left the Caucasus and settled in the Irish Island.

After their exodus from Egypt, the ancient Celts moved back to the region of their "ancestral" home in the Caucasus. They did not continue their route through the mountains, but embarked upon ships, crossed the Caspian Sea and settled on its eastern shore. Could this last migration be the result of a sudden enemy attack? One group of the Celts (a tribe) probably broke off here too and settled in Anatolia. Partholon's people started their migration from here "the land of the Greeks" to occupy a new homeland. Could a lost battle again be the cause of their continued wandering, maybe the fall of Troy?

The Celts, who were settled on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea (the ones who reached Scythia and India), after a while, started out again and found a home in the Meotis Marsh. From here, the noble Nemed ("nemes" in Hungarian), after many adventures, settled his folk in Ireland. Let us not forget that Nemed's clan was the clan of the "Deer". After the unexpected death of Nemed, the remainder of his people - who survived the destruction of the Fomorians - fled on a ship (to Europe?) Here in the new home, Nemed's posthumus sons were elected by the people as their princes. So they, Nemed's and Em(e)se's sons became the founders of two royal houses which descended from Nemed. On one side, the Fir Bolg princes ruled and, on the other, the Tuatha Dé Dannan princes.

According to some historians, the people called Fir Bolg arrived from Belgium around 100 B.C. They were followed by Tuatha Dé Dannan and, only after these, did Mil's sons arrive from Iberia. As is well-known, it was in 100 B.C. that Rome's wars of conquest began and, by 45 B.C., the Romans had reached the southern-most part of Iberia. It was around this time that Mil's Celts migrated to Ireland. If the historians time-table is correct, concerning the Irish conquests, then it hardly took 100(-150) years to complete the last three conquests.: Fir Bolg - Tuatha Dé Dannan - and the sons of Mil.

According to the Book of Conquests, the first (or second) occupiers, or rather the people of Partholon, arrived 312 years after the Flood. (There was probably a mighty flood (in which the people of Cessair perished). Partholons people lived on the island until they multiplied from 24 couples to 5000 people (about 800 years). After the people suffered destruction and annihilation, 22 years passed before the island became "inhabited" again, when the noble Nemed arrived with his people. Nemed arrived in Ireland with 34 ships and 30 men on each ship and his people multiplied to 4030 couples. After Nemed's death and the ensuing destruction by the Fomorians, the remaining people fled and the island again became "empty" (but no longer than 150-200 years, since the Fir Bolg and Tuatha Dé Dannan peoples, as descendants of Nemed, took back their ancestral lands from the Fomorians). The result of this calculation establishes that Partholon arrived in Ireland around 1250 B.C. According to the chronicle, a huge flood hit the Irish Island around 1500 B.C., which destroyed Cessair's settlers. We do not know of such a natural catastrophe, but we do know of changes in the climate. Cessair's people arrived sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C. from an unknown eastern territory and settled on the Irish island. It is at this time that Stonehenge was built in Britain. After Cessair's people perished, the hitherto unknown "Fomorians" ruled the region. Partholons people came from "the land of the Greeks" to Ireland, probably around 1250 B.C. They probably defeated the Fomorians and took possession of the Island. Then, in the second half of the second millennium B.C., both Ireland and Hungary came under "Mycenean" influence at the same time, even though this influence is not recognisable in other parts of Europe.[79] Probably they are a part of those Trojan refugees which are mentioned in chronicles all over Europe. The other, larger part of these refugees took refuge in Pannonia (> Képes krónika).<[80] Here in the Carpathian or Danube Basin developed the cult of DANU, the Mother Goddess, which later appeared in Ireland too. Danu is the name-giver of the river Duna (Danube), the "holy" river of the Druids.

Returning to the Irish Conquest, shortly after the demise of Partholon's people, new conquerors arrived around 500 B.C. under the leadership of Nemed from somewhere in the Caucasus region, or the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea (> Cimmerians? <=> the Welsh name for Wales is CYMRU). According to the Irish chronicles, Partholon and Nemed were Magogs sons. Nemed built a strong country, but his "empire" was short-lived, because it was too dependent upon one person, the emperor, and, with his sudden death, it fell apart. To flee the butchery, Nemed's people escaped on a boat but returned. (Like Fir Bolg, or Tuatha Dé Dannan, he "could not take Danu, the Ancient Mother, with him' and he had to leave her in Annún, or Bannún, in the Motherland, or in "The Land of the Lady" - in other words, in Pannonia, the Country of the "Boldogasszony".[81]). The re-conquest must have taken place no later than 150-200 years (4-5 generations) after Nemed's death and not later, because both "peoples" (the "Wide-trousered" and the "Clan of God") still have a living memory of being the descendants of Nemed when they arrived in Ireland and demanded the return of, or took by armed force [demanded, or rather, retook by force of arms], the land of their ancestors. The return of the "Avars" and the Magyars is also a homecoming to Atilla's land. The Avars are simply called Huns by the historian, Anonymus.

Historians date the home (re)occupation of Ireland by the descendants of Nemed, the Fir Bolg and Tuatha Dé Dannan, around 100 B.C. and consider the Fir Bolg to be the settlers who came from Belgium. We don't know anything of the origin of the Tuatha Dé Dannan. It may be that the people of Danu/Anu, the Mother-Goddess, started out from the Hungarian homeland, painfully leaving behind the Ancient Mother (see above). But [they made sure,] Danu's name lived on in their rivers called DON (Ireland, Scotland, England or France). They were the "people of the Druids" and the creators of the griffin-tendril designs. They were the wise ones, who had such immense knowledge that "they came right from the Heavens" to the Irish Island, who looked for the highest degree of knowledge, wisdom, soothsaying and literature, which they called EICSE (ész) and achieved it there. This wave of conquest may be the decisive factor in the evolution of the Irish language. We conclude the same about the people of the griffin-tendril motif, in regard to the Magyar language, who gave a name to everything in the Carpathian Basin before Árpád led the "Magyar homecoming." They determined the geographic names (mountains and waters) and the names of settlements, which were mostly in Magyar. They created the shamanistic Druidism and the griffin-tendril type of art, which is the basis of today's folk art.[82]

The sons of Mil assimilated into this already existing Irish character. Álmos and his sons assimilated into the already-existing Magyar world in the Carpathian Basin, since the Magyar language was already there before them, and also survived among the Székely (Sicul) people of Scythian/Saka-Hun origin.

This essay was an attempt to compare and demonstrate the parallels that can be found between the Irish and Hungarian history, according to ancient oral traditions, and the accounts written in the Chronicles.

Nobody should be surprised if, reading this, it seems as if all this is familiar, as if they were reading Magyar sagas or the history of the Magyar conquest. Both the Celts and the Magyars are the heirs of the same common Turanian (Scythian) spiritual heritage. Of course, like every comparison, this too may be "limping." Its weak points may be because it gives the appearance that I attempt to place happenings side-by side, which are the stories of two completely different ages. I compared and tried to find the parallels not the real (probable) history of two peoples - which, let us confess, nobody knows - but the memories of two peoples, the Irish and the Hungarian people, as they are present in living memories and the Chronicles.

Celtic kurgan with the "kunbaba"

Fairyland

The main motif of the Irish folk stories is the world of the fairies, who live in a separate Fairyland, called T'YEER-NA-N-OGE, the Land/Country of Youth. They call it such because here neither aging nor death exists. The hero of the story can come to this wonderful land, only with the help of an enchanted horse (Táltosló in Hungarian). This horse, at the beginning of the story, is of course a shaggy unkempt, uncared for pony, which, through the loving care of the hero (prince), changes into a beautiful Táltosparipa, which can talk, and fly, even over the highest mountains, and knows the way to the Land of the Fairies. He also knows all the obstacles that are placed before the hero of the story and also their solution, for which he has the necessary weapons and tricks and he prepares the prince for these just in time."Hold on to my mane my little master" - says the horse to the hero of the story, before he flies up to the highest heavens. The Land of the Fairies is usually on an island, somewhere in the middle of a sea or a big lake, and its entrance is guarded by two fire-breathing dragons or snakes or two columns of fire. However, obviously with the help of the táltos-horse, the prince of the story is able to enter the Land of the Fairies. The main occupation of the fairies is care-free gaiety and eternal dance. They dance to shreds a pair of sandals each night in their "wild" dance and, for this reason Leipreachán, the Fairy shoemaker, works day and night and constantly prepares new sandals. If they show up in the world of the humans, they hold their nightly parties - which they have to end before the cock crows, if they don't want to turn into monuments of stone - in ruined castles where they entice the humans who walk in the vicinity to come in. There were also "bad" fairies, who stole children, or exchanged them, or sometimes caused the milk to dry up in the cows, similar to the "beautiful" or "fancy" women of the Székely (Sicul) folk stories.

Other figures of the Irish folk-stories were the giants. They built castles on top of high mountains; they built the roads leading up to them with the help of the "changed [transformed] roosters" and their devil servants. It is accepted, says Yeats, that the old Irish emperors, heroes and gods turn into giants in folk-stories, and the Goddesses and princesses appear as fairies. In the stories the wives, sisters and daughters of the giants are always fairies. The giants are brave with immense strength, the fairies are beautiful and smart and their song is the world's most beautiful music.[83]

Sándor Timaru-Kast