The Tuatha de Danann
Apr 28, 2011, United Church of God
Brief history of the Tuatha Dé Danann.
Tuatha Dé Danann – Wikipedia
In our free brochure, The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy, we explain how a centuries-long migration was taking the 10 tribes from the areas of their Assyrian captivity to northwest Europe (be sure to request a copy if you haven’t already).
But it should be noted that there was some Israelite migration prior to the Assyrian captivity.
The Danites, mariners in their own right and later more so with the Phoenicians, sailed far and wide over the seas.
Miles Williams Mathis: Phoenicians – Where did they ALL Go? – Library of Rickandria
As we’ve seen, some settled in Greece and became known as the Danaans.
Were the Greeks Israelites? – Library of Rickandria
It has also been suggested that Danann is a conflation of dán (“skill, craft”) and the goddess name Anann.
Anu or Ana (sometimes given as Anann or Anand) is the name of a goddess mentioned briefly in Irish mythology.
- Ana
- Anu
- Anann (gen.)
{Ir. wealth, abundance].
Anu (Irish goddess) – Wikipedia
The principal goddess of pre-Christian Ireland, the mother or ‘nourisher’ of the *Tuatha Dé Danann, the ‘people, tribe, or nation of Ana’.
In *Sanas Cormaic [Cormac’s Glossary] (roth cent.), she is Ana, and Ireland may be known as the ‘land of Ana’.
A prosthetic D- changes Ana, Anu to Dana, Danu; some commentators advise that these forms are later scholarly inventions, while others point out that the name Dana has discrete associations and parallels.
She is most probably the grand- mother of *Ecne, a personification of knowledge and enlightenment.
She may also be the mother of the three sons of *
- Tuireann
- Brian
- *Iuchair
- *Iucharba
see OIDHEADH CHLAINNE TUIREANN [The Tragic Story of the Children of Tuireann].
Stories citing her name suggest she appeared in two aspects,
- beneficent
- maleficent
In the former she gives prosperity to the province of *Munster, as can be seen in the mountains that bear her name, *Dd Chich Anann, ‘The Paps of Ana’, two breast-shaped promontories 10 miles E of Killarney, Co. *Kerry.
In her darker aspects she may be linked with *Aine of *Cnoc Aine near Lough Gur (without etymological connection), as Eleanor Hull asserted in Folklore of the British Isles (1928).
Despite these pagan associations, her name is borne by the virgin St. Ana whose feast-day is 18 January.
The Welsh counterpart of Ana is *Dôn.
See also:
MORRIGAN; MOR MUMAN.
She may be a goddess in her own right or an alternate name for Danu.
In the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Anand is given as another name for The Morrígan.
The Morrígan or Mórrígan, also known as Morrígu, is a figure from Irish mythology.
The name is Mór-ríoghan in modern Irish before the spelling reform, and it has been translated as “great queen” or “phantom queen”.
As her name is often conflated with a number of other goddesses, it is not always clear which figure is being referred to if the name is taken out of context.
A dictionary of Celtic mythology by James MacKillop
The Celtic languages, once spoken widely, survived to modern times only on the fringes of Europe:
Ireland
the Highlands of:
- Scotland
- Wales
- Brittany
The mythology of these languages derives first from ancient worship, as observed by classical commentators and as revealed by modern archaeology.
Written traditions came with the introduction of Christianity, whose scribes never worshipped the older gods.
Irish heroic literature, the most extensive in all Celtic languages, embraced four discrete cycles.
Welsh came later with a smaller corpus.
Still less was recorded in Scottish Gaelic, and narratives from:
- Cornish
- Manx
- Breton
survive mostly in oral tradition.
The current volume seeks to list, describe, and provide reliable spellings from both ancient and modern traditions.
Listed are:
- kings
- queens
- warriors
- hermits
and saints, some of whom are historical but about whom many legends have accrued, and others who certainly never existed. Included also are archaelogical sites and shrines, such living creatures as the eagle and salmon, as well as concepts such as kingship.
Cross-references exist from other mythologies, such as Classical and Norse, as well as links to the most Celtic of Arthurian figures, such as Merlin.
The dictionary summarizes many lengthy narratives, such as The Mabinogion.
Where possible, entries feature reliable etymologies and many entries have extensive bibliographical notes, including adaptations in literature.
As it explains:
- concepts
- narratives
the Dictionary also becomes a handbook of early Celtic culture.
A dictionary of Celtic mythology – Anna’s Archive
Interestingly, all early histories of Ireland mention the arrival there of people from Greece called the Tuatha Dé Danann.
The Whole Interesting History of the Tuatha de Danann: Ireland’s Most Ancient Race
While some today equate them with ancient demigods or mythical fairy folk, they were definitely a genuinely historical people.
The word tuath simply means “tribe.”
Notice:
“Old Irish ‘tuath,’ Welsh ‘tud’ (people, country), Breton ‘tud’ (people) and Gaulish ‘teuta’ (tribe) all come from Common Celtic towta, from the Indo-European word teuta (tribe)”
Dennis King, Focal an Lae: The Word of the Day in Irish:
Tuatha de Danaan is thus the tribe of Danaan.
The Annals of Ireland report:
“The Dan’ans were a highly civilized people, well skilled in architecture and other arts from their long residence in Greece, and their intercourse with the Phoenicians.
ANCIENT SPOOKS – Canaanites, Israelites & Phoenicians: The Modern-day Jews – Library of Rickandria
Their first appearance in Ireland was 1200 B.C., or 85 years after the great victory of Deborah.”
The Tuatha de Danaan, then, must be synonymous with the Danaans of Greece and thus the Israelite tribe of Dan.
TRIBE OF DAN – Library of Rickandria
This is not at all farfetched.
Indeed, it is widely accepted that the Phoenicians established trading outposts or colonies as far away as the British Isles:
“The Phoenicians are believed to have played an important part in spreading the early bronze culture by their trade in tin, which their ships brought to the eastern Mediterranean from Great Britain and Spain at least as early as 1100 BC” (“Industries, Extraction and Processing,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaedia, Vol 21, 1985, p. 424).
ANCIENT SPOOKS – Canaanites, Israelites & Phoenicians: The Modern-day Jews – Library of Rickandria
Yet what many often fail to realize is that the ancient maritime power designated as “Phoenicia” was actually an alliance between the city-states of Tyre and Sidon and the nation of Israel—in which Israel was the senior partner.
ANCIENT SPOOKS: Part I – The pun factor in spookery – Library of Rickandria
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia says:
“In the time of Solomon, Phoenicians, accompanied by Hebrews, reached as far as England . . .
England was therefore known to the Israelites and they may have sought a refuge there after the fall of their kingdom.” (Vol. 1, p. 316)
ANCIENT SPOOKS: Part II – Spookish relations – Library of Rickandria
King Solomon, we are told in Scripture,
For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram:
once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing:
- gold
- silver
- ivory
- apes
and peacocks. 1 Kings 10:22
Shelomoh is the Hebrew Name for Solomon – Library of Rickandria
Tarshish was an ancient port of southern Spain, also known as Tartessus.
It was evidently named after Tarshish, the son of Javan (Genesis 10:4)—Javan (or Yavan) being the name for Greece in the Old Testament.
And the sons of Javan:
- Elishah
- Tarshish
- Kittim
and Dodanim.
As an early Ionian Greek settlement, it was actually an Israelite-Phoenician colony.
ANCIENT SPOOKS: Part III – Link to a spooky past – Library of Rickandria
Something to note about Irish Storytelling:
Ireland has a rich tradition of “seanchaithe”, or storytellers who passed down legends and stories from generation to generation often preserving our history by word of mouth, especially in the past when literacy was much less common.
This may be a contributing factor as to why there are sometimes different versions of famous mythological stories or different names for characters that appear to be very similar.
It is also a contributing factor to the many different spellings of the Tuatha de Danann.
Along with the transition from a Gaelic or Irish speaking country to English becoming the vernacular, many traditional Irish words were transcribed into English spellings.
Variations such as
- the Tuatha de danaan
- Tuatha de dannan
- thua de Danann
- Tuatha dé Danann
- Tua de Danann
- Tuath de Danann
- tuatha Danann
and so forth are examples of this.
While “Tuatha de Danann” is the most correct grammatically, these variations are often used interchangeably.
The Throne of Britain: Its Biblical Origin and Future | United Church of God
RELATED LORE
Tuatha de Danann: History of the Red-Haired Race – Library of Rickandria
SAUCE
The Tuatha de Danaan | United Church of God