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Lebor Gabála Érenn — The Book of Invasions

c. 1000–1150 CE (compiled); oral tradition much older · Medieval Irish · Ireland

The First Invasion — Cessair and the Flood

1Ireland was first settled before the Flood.
2Cessair, daughter of Bith, came with fifty women and three men
3To occupy Ireland and escape the Flood.
4Her father Bith had been refused a place in Noah's ark.
5So they built their own ship and came to Ireland.
6Cessair said to her father and to Fintan and to Ladra:
7"Take a woman each, and the rest I will divide between you."
8But Ladra died first — the first man to die in Ireland.
9Then Bith died, and all the burden fell to Fintan.
10Then the Flood rose over Ireland.
11Only Fintan escaped, swimming as a salmon through the flood waters.
12He became, in turn, a salmon, an eagle, and a hawk,
13And survived to tell the story of all that had happened
14In each successive age.

The Tuatha Dé Danann — The Gods Arrive

15The Tuatha Dé Danann came from the northern islands of the world,
16Where they had learned all knowledge: druidry, wizardry, and cunning.
17They came in dark clouds, and landed on the mountains of Connacht.
18For three days and three nights they darkened the sun with their coming.
19With them they brought four treasures from the four cities:
20The Lia Fáil from Fál — the Stone of Destiny, that cried out under the feet of the true king.
21The Spear of Lugh from Gorias — no battle was ever won against it.
22The Sword of Nuada from Finias — none escaped it once drawn.
23The Cauldron of the Dagda from Murias — no company ever left it unsatisfied.
24The Tuatha Dé Danann fought two great battles for Ireland.
25In the First Battle of Mag Tuired they defeated the Fir Bolg.
26But their king Nuada lost his arm in the battle.
27Since a king of the Tuatha must be without blemish, he was deposed.
28Dian Cécht, the divine physician, fashioned him a silver arm —
29And so he was called Nuada of the Silver Hand.
30But a silver arm did not make him whole.
31Until Dian Cécht's son Miach grew flesh over the silver
32And Nuada was made whole again.

The Second Battle — The Fomorians

33The Fomorians were the dark powers of chaos, the sea, and the underworld.
34In the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, the Tuatha Dé faced them.
35Lugh of the Long Arm led the Tuatha Dé Danann.
36He was master of every art — smith, champion, poet, historian, harper, physician.
37They asked him at the gate: what is your skill?
38"I am a smith," said Lugh. "We have a smith," said the gatekeeper.
39"I am a champion." "We have champions." "I am a poet." "We have poets."
40"But have you any one man who is all these things?" said Lugh.
41And the gate was opened for him.
42The Dagda met a Fomorian woman at the ford before the battle.
43She was washing the entrails of kings killed in the battle yet to come.
44She was the Morrigan — the Great Queen, goddess of war and fate.
45They lay together at the ford, and the Morrigan promised her power to the Dagda.
46In the battle, Lugh slew Balor of the Evil Eye.
47Balor's eye, when opened, could kill an army.
48But Lugh put a sling stone through the eye as it opened,
49Driving it through the back of Balor's head
50Where it killed fifty Fomorians who stood behind him.
51The Fomorians fled. Ireland was won.

notes

Lebor Gabála Érenn ("The Book of the Taking of Ireland"), known in English as the Book of Invasions, is a medieval Irish mythological text compiled around 1000–1150 CE, drawing on much older oral traditions about the successive waves of mythical peoples who occupied Ireland before the historical Irish (the Gaels). The text synthesises pre-Christian Irish mythology with biblical chronology — Cessair arrives before the Flood, the Tuatha Dé Danann ("People of the Goddess Danu") are the Irish gods recast as superhuman invaders, and history ends with the sons of Míl (the ancestors of the Irish people) driving the Tuatha Dé underground into the síde (fairy mounds). The four treasures of the Tuatha Dé — the Stone of Destiny, the Spear of Lugh, the Sword of Nuada, and the Cauldron of the Dagda — correspond to the four cardinal directions and the four elements, and reappear in later Welsh and Arthurian mythology as the Grail and its associated hallows. The Morrigan, the Dagda, Lugh, Dian Cécht, and the cycle of divine battles represent the most complete surviving account of the Irish pantheon. Translation draws on Lady Gregory, Gods and Fighting Men (1904). Public domain.

currently held: Book of Leinster; Rawlinson MS B 512

CelticIrishDivine ConflictCreationPrimordial History

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