Creation Myth part 5: The Celts
Part 5 of my #CreationMyth series will cover the story as told by the Celts.
Although the Celts are one of many folks who practiced oral traditions and have (almost) no written accounts thankfully through their many interactions with the Romans and Roman Empire written records of their looks, their culture and their beliefs.
Once upon a time, there was no time. There were also no gods and no man or woman to walk the land. There was only the sea and its deep depths and dark eternal quiet. A strain of melody moved across the water, a whisper at first. The music was the Oran Mór (Great Melody) and it grew into a great spiraling, gathering sound and gaining momentum reaching further and louder till it reached a great crescendo. Then, where the sea met the land a sea-mare was born. White, and made of sea-foam and her name was Eiocha.
Not far from where the land met the sea, a tree grew, a strong and sturdy oak. On the oak grew a plant whose seeds were formed from the tears of the sea. To sustain and feed herself Eiocha fed upon these seeds, these white berries and they were transformed in her.
Eiocha sprouted a plant which gave birth to the first god. This god we now know to be Cernunnos (the horned god). They mated and through their mating created more gods.
These gods were:
Maponos (Great Son. The god of youth)
Tauranis/Taranis (God of thunder)
Teutates/Toutatis (The tribal protector)
Epona (protector of horses, ponies, donkeys, and mules. Goddess of fertility)
The birthing of her children to Eiocha was so painful she ripped the bark from the one tree and hurled it into the see, by doing so creating the giants of the deep.
Eiocha soon grew tired of the land, being a creature of sea-foam, and she returned to the sea, her home, where she was transformed into Tethra (or Tethys), Goddess of the deep water.
The gods felt lonely for they did not have anyone to command them or worship them, and so from the wood of an oak tree (again) created man and woman. Cernunnos created other animals from the tree too namely the deer and the hound, the boar and the raven, the hare and the snake. He was the god of the animals of the world, and he commended the oak tree to spread and grow far and wide. Creating forests, providing a home and shelter for his creations.
(writers note: In the Christian bible it says god created man in its own image right? I find it funny and also telling that you can kind of find the same thing here. The first god came from an oak tree (or plant thereof) and the first man and woman did too. So they were created from the same thing the first god was created with. Another way of saying "created in its own image")
Epona also made animals but she only made horses, mares and stallions alike, in remembrance of her mother Eiocha.
Teutates took limbs from the one tree, fashioned a bow and arrow, and a club.
Tauranis took limbs from the one tree, and fashioned thunderbolts made of fire and noise. Tauranis would leap to the top of the tallest trees and hurl the bolts to the ground. The ground would tremble and shake, the grass would burn and the animals would run in fear.
Manopos also took limbs from the tree but for himself didn't fashion any weapons. He fashioned himself a harp. He stretched strings of wind from its limbs and spend the days in the forests of Cernunnos. All the winds and birds would join in on the songs and melodies. And all of Cernunnos' animals would come from near and far to listen to Manopos play.
The giants of the deep saw how happy the gods were and grew envious of their happiness for they had nothing to command and were worshipped by none. So the giants plotted against them. They would overwhelm them with the see and take the land under the water. Unfortunately for them Tethra heard their murmurings and plotting in the waves and, remembering her days as Eiocha, warned her children.
The gods were prepared the day the giants struck against them and took refuge in the oak tree.
Tauranis hurled one of his thunderbolts and split the land, the sea overflowing its boundaries.
Manopos broke the sky and hurled it towards the giants.
Teutates with deadly aim from his bow and arrow cut down many of the giants.
But the giants of the deep were not without weapons themselves. They possessed the power of the waves. The gods overwhelmed the giants but could not destroy them. The giants of the deep were driven back into the sea and Tethra bound them into the deep waters. A few escaped her and fled to the outer edges of the world, creating a new life there, calling themselves the Fomhoire. The Fomhoire dreamed of conquest and vowed to once again battle the gods for their dominion over the lands.
After the battle the sea returned to its bed and Manopos repaired the sky. The gods then searched for their sister Epona, who had been absent from the victory. Epona had rescued one man, and one woman from the watery and fiery destruction of the battle, and the three of them waited somewhere deep into Cernunnos' forest. From this man and this woman whom Epona had saved would come all of human kind.
The gods and the goddess left the deep of Cernunnos' forest to return to their home near the mighty oak tree who still stood strong with its sacred berries still growing and white as sea-foam.
Where the fiery pieces of where Manopos has torn the skies had mingled with the waters of the sea, new gods were born. The god Belenus and his sister Danu (Dana) sprang from the heavenly fire had been but little quenched. The god Lir had sprung from where the fire of heaven had been almost quenched by the sea.
From Lir would come the mighty Manannan, the beautiful Branwen and the wise Bran.
But from Danu many children would come, the Dagda, Nuadha of the Silver Hand, the wise Dienceght, the smith Goihbhio, the fearsome Morrigan, the gentle Brighid. In Ireland they are called the Tuatha Dé Danann (a subject I have posted about before)
https://greyhornpagans.blogspot.com/2021/08/danadanu.html
https://greyhornpagans.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-tuatha-de-danann.html
The Children of Danu and the Children of Lir are the two mighty races our songs tell of, ever opposite.
I will delve deeper into the Children of Lir some other time but for now this is it! This is the story of the creation of our world and its inhabitants as told by the
Celtic tradition.
Thank you all for reading and letting me write this, share it around and with everyone and anyone who might be interested in this!
I am not sure yet which way I will go for my part 6 but in time I will of course let you all know!
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