Secrets of Celtic and Irish Mythology Revealed
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 16/04/2022

Secrets of Celtic and Irish Mythology and Gods Revealed

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What gods did the Celts believe in? What stories did they tell themselves? Today I want to introduce the subject of Celtic and Irish mythology. 

Hi and welcome to Celtic History Decoded, I’m Steven.

The Tuatha Dé Danann, meaning “people of the goddess Danu” is common in Celtic and Irish mythology. Danu was the mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann. They represented a supernatural race that lived in the otherworld, but they could interact with the human world. 

The first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann was Nuada, who lost his hand in battle and thus his right to govern, resulting in him losing his kingship. He was then given a silver hand, and later was magically healed with a full functioning human hand. 

The enemies of the Tuatha Dé Danann were the Fomorians, another supernatural race that are often depicted as being a monstrous, chaotic and dark force that dwelt under the sea or the earth. The Tuatha Dé Danann defeated the Fomorians in an epic battle. In later folklore, the Tuatha Dé Danann were often referred to as fairies, a subject I want to address in a later video.

One of the main gods of the Tuatha Dé Danann was the Dagda, meaning good god, often portrayed as a father-figure, a king, and a druid. He is associated with agriculture, fertility, strength and magic, and is often depicted as having a magic staff or club that kills with one end and heals with the other.  Some say that the Dagda is connected to an older Celtic and Gallo-Roman god Sucellus, who carried a mallet or hammer in one hand and an Olla or jar in the other.  

The Morrígan is another Celtic deity, referred to as the great or phantom queen, or sometimes the Queen of the Demons. Associated with war and fate, The Morrígan is often depicted as taking the form of a crow, and is referred to in many texts as a trio of sisters. On the night of Gaelic festival of Samhain (SahWin), the fire end of summer festival that marked the start of the dark half of the year, a important precursor to Halloween, the coming together of the Dagda and the Morrigan signified the survival of the tribe and fertility of crops and animals in the year ahead.

Sources:

Barry Cunliffe (2018) The Ancient Celts (Oxford University Press) 

Celtic mythology, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_mythology 

Tuatha Dé Danann Encyclopaedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tuatha-De-Danann 

#Celticmythology #Irishmythology #Mythology