An Chraobh Airgid

People

Tuatha Dé Danann

Tuatha Dé Danann

Say it: TOO-uh-huh day DAN-un

The old gods of Ireland.

Open it on the full site There every name opens, and a web shows who is kin to whom.

The name is usually translated “peoples of the goddess Danu”, though her name is uncertain. They brought four treasures from four cities of the north: the Stone of Fál, the Spear of Lugh, the Sword of Nuada and the Dagda’s Cauldron. When they came to Ireland they burned their ships on the shore, and a druid’s mist hid them for three days. They beat the Fir Bolg at the first battle of Mag Tuired and the Fomorians at the second, and when the sons of Míl came they went into the sí, the hollow hills.

Kin and bonds

In the tales

  • The Children of Lir A jealous stepmother, a druid’s wand, and four children who must live nine hundred years as swans.
  • The Fate of the Children of Tuireann Three brothers stone Lugh’s father to death. His price sounds small: three apples, a pigskin, a spear, a hound’s whelp, and three shouts on a hill.
  • The Coming of the Tuatha Dé Danann They burned their ships on the shore, and for three days a druid’s mist hid them. Then they sent word to the people who held Ireland: half the land, or a battle.
  • The Second Battle of Mag Tuired A beautiful king who gives nothing, a stranger with every art, an eye no army can face, and a harp that plays sorrow, laughter and sleep.
  • The Song of Amairgen A poet sets his right foot on Ireland and sings that he is the wind on the sea. Three queens of the old gods meet him, and each asks for the island’s name.
  • Fionn and the Burning of Tara For twenty-three years a man of the sídhe has played Tara to sleep at Samhain and burned it. Then a boy of ten, an outlaw, offers to keep it till morning.

See also

  • Aillén mac Midgna The musician of the sídhe who burned Tara every Samhain, until the boy Fionn stayed awake.
  • Banba The first of the three queens who asked that Ireland bear her name.
  • Bres The beautiful king of the Tuatha Dé who gave nothing, son of a Fomorian king.
  • The Dagda’s Cauldron The cauldron no company left hungry.
  • Elatha King of the Fomorians, and father of Bres.
  • Eochaid mac Eirc The king of the Fir Bolg when the Tuatha Dé Danann came, who dreamed of black birds.
  • Fódla The second of the three queens who asked that Ireland bear her name.
  • The Fomorians Old enemies of the gods. In folklore, giants.
  • The Four Cities Falias, Gorias, Findias and Murias, where the Tuatha Dé Danann learned their arts.
  • Íth Son of Bregon, who saw Ireland from a tower in Spain and paid for praising it.
  • Lir Lord of Síd Fionnachaidh, father of the four swans.
  • Mag Tuired Moytirra, above Lough Arrow. The high ground above Lough Arrow where the gods fought the Fomorians.
  • Midir Lord of the síd of Brí Léith, who came back for the wife he had lost.
  • Nuada of the Silver Hand King of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who lost a hand in battle and was given one of silver.
  • Sliabh an Iarainn Slieve Anierin. The Iron Mountain, where the Tuatha Dé stood when their mist lifted.
  • The Spear of Lugh The spear no battle could stand against.
  • The Stone of Fál The stone at Tara that cried out under a true king.
  • The Sword of Nuada The sword no one escaped.
  • Tailtin Teltown. Where the sons of Míl beat the Tuatha Dé, and the old gods lost Ireland.
  • Tuireann Father of Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba.

Sources

Medieval manuscript. Written down by Irish scholars between the eighth and seventeenth centuries.

Each tale above lists the sources it is retold from. Every source the site draws on is listed on the full site.