The Origins of Lughnasa

Lughnasa is the month of the year named after the great god Lugh LamhFhada of Celtic myth and legend and one of my own favourite characters in what is called ‘Early Irish Literature’ which recorded the earliest and most beautiful tales and sagas of the ancient inhabitants of the island of Érann (Éireann=Ireland).

Today Lughnasa is known as August after the Roman Emperor Augustus and why we still allow the use of this nonsensical name is understandable as it is now the universal word for the month but if you are a stubborn Gael or Scotti and a Gaelic/Gallic speaker you can just ignore this Imperial Roman dictat.

Lugh Lamhfhada was perhaps the greatest of all the ancient gods of ancient Ireland and around him, a pantheon of the Celtic gods rotated in unison occasionally in harmony but mostly the opposite.

 

Pantheon of the Gods

In the most wonderful account recorded in our ancient annals titled ‘The First Battle of Moytura’ and ‘The Second Battle of Moytura’ the entire pantheon of the Irish gods and goddesses do battle and strive to regain the ownership of the island of Ireland by a series of encounters that can only be resolved by warfare on a massive scale.

This at a time when too many casualties on either side had to be avoided and victory was to be earned it seemed by a series of solo encounters, pitting champion against champion, hero against hero with seductive prophetesses mixed in for good measure and great warriors left to face the final battles against forces both mortal and immortal, a real and imaginative twilight of the gods.

 

Lugh, I am your Grandfather

In the end the island is divided by race and tribe while the real indigenous people, the ‘monstrous’ Fomor, along with their fearsome wizard-king Balor of the Evil Eye are defeated and the victors, the invading Tuatha Dé Danann, finally rule their promised land thanks to the greatest of their heroes, Lugh the Il-Dána, who kills his own Fomorian grandfather Balor of the Evil Eye, in an epic single and sorcerous combat and takes possession of the land for his own tribe, the Tuatha Dé.

What is really interesting is the fact that Lugh himself is a half Fomorian, half DéDanann warrior. This reminds us that everything in art, life, and even mythology is never simple, never black and white but vastly more complex.

 

Master of All Arts

His other title is also significant: while Lugh LamhFhada simply means ‘Lugh the LongArm’ -useful for sword wielding. spear and slingshot throwing, Lugh’s other name is actually a powerful invocation of his lineage and a record of his power.
This title is ‘Lugh Il-Dána’ and means ‘Lugh the Multi-Talented’ or Lugh the ‘Master of all the Arts’, meaning master of all the arts of war and peace, art, and literature, science and discovery -and these are enumerated in the story of the Second Battle of MoyTura.

It was never enough to be a warrior or a good leader in those days so Lugh was a military leader, a seer, a mystic, a warrior who would chant and display before his enemies on his warhorse AonBharr of the Flowing Mane -as he is described in the manuscripts when he decides to challenge the ruling order by displaying his power from his own path, Rath Lugh, his fortress opposite the king’s fortress on the Hill of Tara. Then after this display, he tears towards the ramparts of Tara and leaps clear over them and inside in a single bound.

Interpretations of the Myths

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my own opinion all this is significant as a ritualistic ceremony for the changing from one ruler to the next and allows a non-bloody transfer of power but as we know from archaeology that kings and courtiers were often sacrificed and lowered into wet bog land as a way of having the garroted former king shown the way to the Otherworld via the darkness of the boggy earth.

The other interpretation I have is a simple one. The entire cosmology is linked to a harvest festival and one of the former names for the festival is ‘Crom Dubh’. Now this name is related only to one race in the annals and in Irish Mythology and that race was none other than the Fomor as their God was the Great Crom, the Fomor Serpent or Worm God of antiquity.