Eiriu-Eolas and Lebor Gabála Érenn

[ana]

Looking for clues, about ancient celtic knowledge and doing a searching of Eiriu-Eolas in internet, I have found the next:


http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/leborgabala.html

This text--found in both the Book of Leinster and the Book of Fermoy--is the core text of the mythological cycle in Irish literature, as well as the earliest known history written by the Irish. It tells of the successive invasions of Ireland by different tribes, from the creation of the world to the coming of the Milesians (Iberian Celts):
§01-13: Biblical History
§14-25: Gaedhil History
§26-29: Cessairians
§30-38: Partholonians
§39-47: Nemedians
§48-54: Fir Bolgs
§55-64: Tuatha De Dannan
§56-60: The First Battle of Magh Turedh
§65-: The Milesians

Of the above invasions, the Partholonians and the Nemedians are also discussed in the Historia Brittonum, which is generally dated to the 8th or 9th century, if no earlier; Giraldus Cambrensis also mentions these two tribes.

In truth, Ireland was settled by several groups of people: nomadic hunters and gatherers; pre-Celts and the Cruithan (Picts); Iron-age Celts, first from Northern Europe, and the second possibly from Spain. This--a hypothesis--is reflected by the existence of the Milesians. Also, there is the curious story of the "Black Irish"--that the existence of the short, dark-haired and occasionally olive-skinned people, usually found in the west of Ireland, are the result of the intermarriage of shipwrecked Armada sailors and local girls. Some say this is history; others say it is myth. Either way, it isn't hard to see a connection between the pre-historic Milesians--son of Mil of Spain--and the Spanish sailors of the 16th century.

§65-: The Milesians
Bregon son of Brath, gentle and good,
he had a son, Mil:
the seven sons of Mil--good their host--
including Eber and Eremon.

Along with Dond, and Airech with battle,
including Ir, along with Arannan,
including Armorgen with bright countenance,
and along with Colptha of the sword.

The ten sons of Bregon without falsehood,
Brega, Fuat, and Murthemne,
Cualnge, Cuala, fame though it were,
Ebleo, Nar, Ith, and Bile.

Ith son of Bregon with tuneful fame
came at the first into Ireland:
he is the first of men who inhabited it,
of the noble seed of the powerful Gaedil

And on Bregon, wich is Breogan in Spanish I found t the next:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebor_Gab%C3%A1la_%C3%89renn

Tower of Hercules, A Coruña, Spain, rebuilt 2nd and 18th centuries: According to the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Breogán was the father of Ith, the leader of the first Celtic expedition to Ireland from the Iberian Peninsula; from Breogán's Tower Ith first saw Ireland, 900 kilometres north of A Coruña


Breogán, son of Brath, is a mythical Celtic king from Galicia. Multiple accounts exist about him, but he is seen as the mythological father of the Galician nation. His sons are Ith and Bile (Belenus).

Galicia is sometimes described poetically as the home of Breogán or in Galician language, "fogar de Breogán", as it is mentioned that way in Galicia's anthem.

According to Gaelic legends compiled in the 11th-century Lebor Gabála Érenn, the "Book of Conquests", King Breogán constructed in Brigantium (ancient Celtic town, currently known as A Coruña) a massive tower of such a grand height that his sons Ith and Bile could see a distant green shore from its top. The glimpse of that distant green land lured them to sail north to that Ireland. Once in Ireland, they were received by the Tuatha Dé Danann (ancient tribe who occupied Ireland before the Celts) who ambushed the Galicians and managed to kill one of Breogan's sons, Ith. Decades after, Míl Espáine, Breogán's grandson, took vengeance upon the Tuatha Dé Danann and invaded Ireland with the intention of defeating them and settling in the Ireland.

This tale is mostly described in the last chapter of the Lebor Gabála Érenn in reference to the Milesians or "Sons of Míl" who, according to this legend, would be the first wave of Celts arriving into Irish shores (the Tuatha Dé Danann were not Celts).

A similar story about a monk who saw a green island from the top of the tower of Brigantia was written in the 9th-10th century in Galicia. The manuscript is called Trezenzonii de Solistitionis Insula Magna (Monk Trezenzon and the Big Island).

A large statue of Breogán has been erected near the Tower of Hercules.

Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland) is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish race from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages. An important record of the folkloric history of Ireland, it was compiled and edited by an anonymous scholar in the 11th century, and might be described as a mélange of mythology, legend, history, folklore and Christian historiography. It is usually known in English as The Book of Invasions or The Book of Conquests, and in Modern Irish as Leabhar Gabhála Éireann or Leabhar Gabhála na hÉireann.



The British poet and mythologist Robert Graves may be cited as one of the relatively few modern scholars who did not share the scepticism of Macalister and O'Rahilly. In his seminal work The White Goddess (1948), Graves argued that ancient knowledge was transmitted orally from generation to generation by the druids of pre-literate Ireland. Taking issue with Macalister, with whom he corresponded on this and other matters, he declared some of LGE's traditions "archaeologically plausible".[7] The White Goddess itself has been the subject of critical and sceptical comment; nevertheless, it must be acknowledged[citations needed] that Graves did find some striking links between Celtic and Near Eastern mythology that are difficult to explain unless one is willing to accept that myths brought to Ireland centuries before the introduction of writing were preserved and transmitted accurately by word of mouth before being written down in the Christian Era

It has been really nice to find that Galicia is directly connected, as my mother was born in galicia.
Here you are the anthem of Galicia from the Galician poet Eduardo Pondal wich seems really beautiful to me.

What do the murmuring say
in the greenish coast
to the transparent beam
of the placid moonplace?
What do the high
dark pine needle jagged tops say
with its well compased
measured grumble?
"With your girdled greenness
and with benign stars
limit of the green castroes
and courageous land,
don't give to oblivion
of outrage the hard effort;
wake up from your dream
home of Breogán.

"The good and generous
our voice understand,
and with determination they attend
our harsh sound,
but only the ignoramus,
and wounded and hard,
idiot and dark
don't understand us, they do not.

"The times are arrived
of Age Bards,
that your indeterminacies
end they will put down;
because where it wants, giant
our voice proclaims
the redention of the good
Nation of Breogán".

I am going to read carefully the Lebor Gabála Érenn, and will tell you if I find something wich seems interesting.

Sorry to make you read so much .. :P

 

[EmeraldHope]

Re: Eiriu-Eolas and Lebor Gabála Érenn

What do the murmuring say
in the greenish coast
to the transparent beam
of the placid moonplace?
What do the high
dark pine needle jagged tops say
with its well compased
measured grumble?
"With your girdled greenness
and with benign stars
limit of the green castroes
and courageous land,
don't give to oblivion
of outrage the hard effort;
wake up from your dream
home of Breogán.

"The good and generous
our voice understand,
and with determination they attend
our harsh sound,
but only the ignoramus,
and wounded and hard,
idiot and dark
don't understand us, they do not.

"The times are arrived
of Age Bards,
that your indeterminacies
end they will put down;
because where it wants, giant
our voice proclaims
the redention of the good
Nation of Breogán".

Ana,

This is a beautiful poem. Thank you. My grandmother loves pine trees, and she will love this poem. I am going to send it to her. She is of Gaelic/Celtic
descent, also.

Her maiden name was connected to the mythical land of Tir Na nog.