Archive 3570

Frontiers of Anthropology

This blog is to encorporate discussions on Lost Continents, Catastrophism, The origin of Modern Humans and the Out of Africa theory, Genetics and Human Diversity, The Origin and Spread of Civilization and Cultural Diffusion across the face of the Globe.

Deluge of Atlantis

Deluge of Atlantis

Friday, March 16, 2012

More on Fomorians

I had posted here before about the fomorian pirates of ancient Ireland and I thought St. Patrick’s day was a good opportunity to add some more on the theory. My theory was that the Formorian giants were a specifically bred caste of warriors of very great size and strength, bred out of CroMagnonlike forebearers (likely the Canary Islander natives as a base), and trained by a life of ritual gladiatorial combats. The physica type I took to be best represented by the Adena “mound buildes” and they were the basis of reports of “Giant skeletons in the mounds” the giant mercenaries were themselves prized trade items and status symbols for thoe ones that commanded them, and they were shipped far and wide because of that. They were mosty especially associated with the Atlantic seaboard in Europe and ebventually some ended up in the Holy Lands in company of the Philistines (themselves a variety of the Peoples of the Sea) and hence you have the stories of Goliath and hs brothers. Being a highly inbred bunch, they ran to a greater-than-normal frequency of certain mutations such as polydactylity (six fingers on every hand and six toes on wevery foot) and the peculiarity of retaining thre milk teeth while the adult replacement teeth grew in (leading to a double tooth row)

Fomorians

A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology | 2004 | JAMES MacKILLOP | 700+ words | © A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

Fomorians, Fomoire, Fomóiri, Fomoraig, Fomhóraigh, Fomhoire, Fomorii, Fomor, Fomors, Fomoré, Fo-Muir, Foawr [Manx]. Malevolent euhemerized deities of the Irish Mythological Cycle, known chiefly from two texts, the *Lebor Gabála [Book of Invasions] and Cath Maige Tuired [The (Second) Battle of Mag Tuired], in which their portrayals are not coordinate. Although current scholarship agrees on their divine origin, earlier commentators often portrayed them as demonic pirates, probably reading the element mór– [phantom] as muir [sea]. Early Christian commentators traced the Fomorians to the biblical Ham, son of Noah. Later ecclesiastical storytellers made them either giants or elves, with goat- or horseheads and other misshapen features. While the origins of the Fomorians dates from pre-Christian times, their characterization has been coloured by generations of sea-raiders from the north, first from the Scottish islands and more extensively from the Norse lands; they are often linked to Lochlainn [Scandinavia]. Rejected now is the earlier assumption that the Fomorians were primitive gods of fertility.

When they first appear in the Lebor Gabála, under their ferocious leader Cichol against the beneficient Partholonians, the Fomorians are portrayed as monstrous and fearful, each having only one eye, one arm, and one leg; see the Irish FER CAILLE and the Scottish Gaelic FACHAN. Later in the text they are more anthropomorphic. While the Fomorians do not fit into the invasion sequence, they prey upon each successive invader, the Partholonians and the Nemedians, until they are defeated by the Tuatha Dé Danann. Curiously absent are Fomorian attacks on the invaders between the Nemedians of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Fir Bolg, prompting some commentators to speculate that the two are identical; later commentators reject this assertion. While associated with several locations, the Fomorians never appear to be settlers in Ireland but instead make raids from their fortress on Tory Island, north of Co. Donegal. In general the Fomorians are wantonly cruel bullies, cutting the noses off those who would not pay them tribute. The Nemedians overcome the Fomorians in three battles until they themselves are defeated at Cnámross (distinguish from Fenian battle on the same site). The subsequent humiliations visited upon the Nemedians, especially an exacting annual tribute, cause them to rise up against their Fomorian masters, storming the fortress of Tory Island; they attack Tor Conaind, and the Nemedian champion Fergus Lethderg slays the Fomorian chief Conand. But the Fomorians prevail, and the disappointed Nemedians are scattered around the world.

In Cath Maige Tuired, the portrayal of the Fomorians draws more substantially on their divine origin. They intermarry freely with the Tuatha Dé Danann, the tribe of gods, implying that they are the marine counterparts of the latter. The Fomorian Elatha mac Delbaíth, for example, mates with Ériu of the Tuatha Dé Danann to produce Bres, who inherits the leadership of the Tuatha Dé Danann from Nuadu Airgetlám. The great champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Lug Lámfhota, is the grandson of a Fomorian. Although the root of the conflict between the Fomorians and the Tuatha Dé Danann in Cath Maige Tuired is extraordinarily deep, the pre-text within the narrative is the unsuitableness of Bres as king: he insults poets and demands humiliating tributes from the race of the gods made subject. Nuadu returns to power and Lug Lámfhota presents himself in court to aid the cause. The central conflict pits Lug against the Fomorian menace, Balor of the Evil Eye, who is in fact Lug’s grandfather. In an unexpected turn of events, Lug’s sling stone drives Balor’s eye back through his head, directing it towards his Fomorian comrades in arms and thus debilitating them. In the remainder of the story, the Tuatha Dé Danann rout the Fomorians and, amidst much slaughter, drive them back into the sea.

Other often-cited Fomorians include: Ágach, an enemy of the Tuatha Dé Danann; Cailitin, a wizard slain by Cúchulainn; Corb, a tribal deity; Delga, builder of the fortress of Dun Delgan [Dundalk]; Domnu, the mother of them all; Indech, a king killed at Mag Tuired; Lóbais, druid of the Fomorians; Morc, who emigrated from Africa; Néit, the war-god; Searbhán, the one-eyed keeper of rowan berries, who is sometimes a Fomorian; Tethra, a warrior-chief killed at Mag Tuired. The goat-headed Gaborchend may be derived from the Fomorians.

Under different guises, as demonic pirates or as spirits of the earth, as earlier commentators described them, the Fomorians have appealed to the imaginations of several writers in English. W. B. Yeats spoke often of the Fomorians, whose name he spelled either Fomor or Fomoroh. His sorceress Orchil in The Shadowy Waters (1905) and Dhoya (1891), the abandoned giant, are both Fomorians. The Foawr of Manx tradition, initially a local variant of the Fomorians, are stone-throwing giants. See also Alexander H. Krappe, Balor with the Evil Eye (New York, 1927).

JAMES MacKILLOP. “Fomorians.” A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Mar. 2012 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

–At one point I mentioned that the Fomorians having one eye, one hand and one leg each was like the stereotyped pyrate with an eyepatch, hook and a claw. And on top of that, they were frequently redheaded or “Redbeards”

Anymore I think that was a darn good and sensible way of looking at the thing. And there is even some support for the notion they were associated with the sign of the Skull and Crossed bones, which of course predated the pirate age in Europe by several centuries and is also seen in Precolumbian Mesoamerica.
Crossbones as a Mayan Symbol of Ixchel:
Bones crossed in an “x” is Mayan symbol of foreboding. Crossbones are a mortal Mayan symbol calling upon the concept of crossroads, which are considered ominous locations. Bones crossed are symbolic of a juxtaposition between god/man, life/death, dark/light, etc. – there is a “meeting of duality” in this crossed bone gesture. Bones were often left at crossroad sites as a gesture to discard contaminants. For example: If you died of a disease within the community, your bones might have been left at the crossroads as a gesture to “excommunicate” the disease that took your body. Crossbones have been identified as adornments on the Ixchel’s clothing (in some of her renditions). This would imply she could be a sin-eater of sorts. It may also suggest Ixchel morphed into a warrior goddess at some point in the Mayan culture. She has been seen holding a spear and a shield too. These Mayan symbols along with crossbones might reinforce a vengeful attitude, and would suggest Ixchel as fully capable of reaping shrewd judgment in times of tribal war.

This incidentally parallels the crossed spears of the Egyptian Goddess Neith (Greek Athena)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomorians

Formorians

In Irish mythology, the Fomoire (or Fomorians) are a semi-divine race said to have inhabited Ireland in ancient times. They may have once been believed to be the beings who preceded the gods, similar to the Greek Titans. It has been suggested that they represent the gods of chaos and wild nature, as opposed to the Tuatha Dé Danann who represent the gods of human civilization. Alternatively, they may represent the gods of a proposed pre-Goidelic population of Ireland.

Name

The race are known as the Fomoire or Fomoiri, names that are often Anglicised as Fomorians, Fomors or Fomori. Later in Middle Irish they are also known as the Fomóraig. The etymology of the name Fomoire (plural) has been cause for some debate. Medieval Irish scholars thought the name contained the element muire “sea”, owing to their reputation as sea pirates.^[1] In 1888, John Rhys was the first to suggest that it is an Old Irish word composed of fo “under/below” and muire “sea”, concluding that it may refer to beings whose (original) habitat is under the sea.^[2] Observing two instances of the early genitive form fomra, Kuno Meyer arrives at the same etymology, but takes it to refer to land by the sea.^[3] Whitley Stokes and Rudolf Thurneysen, on the other hand, prefer to connect the second element *mor with a supposed Old English cognate mara “mare” (which survives today in the English word night-mare).^[4][5] Building on these hypotheses, Marie-Louise Sjoestedt interprets the combination of fo and the root *mor as a compound meaning “inferior” or “latent demons”.^[6]

Characteristics

They are sometimes said to have had the body of a man and the head of a goat, [ie, they are stereotyped devils] according to an 11th century text in Lebor na hUidre (the Book of the Dun Cow), or to have had one eye, one arm and one leg, but some, for example Elatha, the father of Bres, were very beautiful. Bres himself carries the epithet “the Beautiful.”

Irish mythology

The medieval myth of Partholon says that his followers were the first to invade Ireland after the flood, but the Fomorians were already there: Seathrún Céitinn reports a tradition that the Fomorians, led by Cíocal, had arrived two hundred years earlier and lived on fish and fowl until Partholon came, bringing the plough and oxen. Partholon defeated Cíocal in the Battle of Magh Ithe, but all his people later died of plague.

Then came Nemed and his followers. Ireland is said to have been empty for thirty years following the death of Partholon’s people, but Nemed and his followers encountered the Fomorians when they arrived. At this point Céitinn reports another tradition that the Fomorians were seafarers from Africa, descended from Noah’s son Ham. Nemed defeated them in several battles, killing their kings Gann and Sengann,^[7] but two new Fomorian leaders arose: Conand son of Faebar, who lived in Conand’s Tower on Tory Island, County Donegal, and Morc son of Dela (note that the first generation of the Fir Bolg were also said to be sons of Dela).

After Nemed’s death, Conand and Morc enslaved his people and demanded a heavy tribute: two thirds of their children, grain and cattle. Nemed’s son Fergus Lethderg gathered an army of sixty thousand, rose up against them and destroyed Conand’s Tower, but Morc attacked them with a huge fleet, and there was great slaughter on both sides. The sea rose over them and drowned most of the survivors: only thirty of Nemed’s people escaped in a single ship, scattering to the other parts of the world.

The next invasion was by the Fir Bolg, who did not encounter the Fomorians.

Next, the Tuatha Dé Danann, who are usually supposed to have been the gods of the Goidelic Irish, defeated the Fir Bolg in the first Battle of Magh Tuiredh and took possession of Ireland. Because their king, Nuada, had lost an arm in the battle and was no longer physically whole, their first king in Ireland was the half-Fomorian Bres. He was the result of a union between Ériu of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorian prince Elatha, who had come to her one night by sea on a silver boat. Both Elatha and Bres are described as very beautiful. However Bres turned out to be a bad king who forced the Tuatha Dé to work as slaves and pay tribute to the Fomorians. He lost authority when he was satirized for neglecting his kingly duties of hospitality. Nuada was restored to the kingship after his arm was replaced with a working one of silver, but the Tuatha Dé’s oppression by the Fomorians continued.

Bres fled to his father, Elatha, and asked for his help to restore him to the kingship. Elatha refused, on the grounds that he should not seek to gain by foul means what he couldn’t keep by fair. Bres instead turned to Balor, a more warlike Fomorian chief living on Tory Island, and raised an army.

The Tuatha Dé also prepared for war, under another half-Fomorian leader, Lug. His father was Cia

Frontiers of Anthropology

This blog is to encorporate discussions on Lost Continents, Catastrophism, The origin of Modern Humans and the Out of Africa theory, Genetics and Human Diversity, The Origin and Spread of Civilization and Cultural Diffusion across the face of the Globe.

Deluge of Atlantis

Deluge of Atlantis

Friday, March 16, 2012

More on Fomorians

I had posted here before about the fomorian pirates of ancient Ireland and I thought St. Patrick’s day was a good opportunity to add some more on the theory. My theory was that the Formorian giants were a specifically bred caste of warriors of very great size and strength, bred out of CroMagnonlike forebearers (likely the Canary Islander natives as a base), and trained by a life of ritual gladiatorial combats. The physica type I took to be best represented by the Adena “mound buildes” and they were the basis of reports of “Giant skeletons in the mounds” the giant mercenaries were themselves prized trade items and status symbols for thoe ones that commanded them, and they were shipped far and wide because of that. They were mosty especially associated with the Atlantic seaboard in Europe and ebventually some ended up in the Holy Lands in company of the Philistines (themselves a variety of the Peoples of the Sea) and hence you have the stories of Goliath and hs brothers. Being a highly inbred bunch, they ran to a greater-than-normal frequency of certain mutations such as polydactylity (six fingers on every hand and six toes on wevery foot) and the peculiarity of retaining thre milk teeth while the adult replacement teeth grew in (leading to a double tooth row)

Fomorians

A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology | 2004 | JAMES MacKILLOP | 700+ words | © A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information)Copyright

Fomorians, Fomoire, Fomóiri, Fomoraig, Fomhóraigh, Fomhoire, Fomorii, Fomor, Fomors, Fomoré, Fo-Muir, Foawr [Manx]. Malevolent euhemerized deities of the Irish Mythological Cycle, known chiefly from two texts, the *Lebor Gabála [Book of Invasions] and Cath Maige Tuired [The (Second) Battle of Mag Tuired], in which their portrayals are not coordinate. Although current scholarship agrees on their divine origin, earlier commentators often portrayed them as demonic pirates, probably reading the element mór– [phantom] as muir [sea]. Early Christian commentators traced the Fomorians to the biblical Ham, son of Noah. Later ecclesiastical storytellers made them either giants or elves, with goat- or horseheads and other misshapen features. While the origins of the Fomorians dates from pre-Christian times, their characterization has been coloured by generations of sea-raiders from the north, first from the Scottish islands and more extensively from the Norse lands; they are often linked to Lochlainn [Scandinavia]. Rejected now is the earlier assumption that the Fomorians were primitive gods of fertility.

When they first appear in the Lebor Gabála, under their ferocious leader Cichol against the beneficient Partholonians, the Fomorians are portrayed as monstrous and fearful, each having only one eye, one arm, and one leg; see the Irish FER CAILLE and the Scottish Gaelic FACHAN. Later in the text they are more anthropomorphic. While the Fomorians do not fit into the invasion sequence, they prey upon each successive invader, the Partholonians and the Nemedians, until they are defeated by the Tuatha Dé Danann. Curiously absent are Fomorian attacks on the invaders between the Nemedians of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Fir Bolg, prompting some commentators to speculate that the two are identical; later commentators reject this assertion. While associated with several locations, the Fomorians never appear to be settlers in Ireland but instead make raids from their fortress on Tory Island, north of Co. Donegal. In general the Fomorians are wantonly cruel bullies, cutting the noses off those who would not pay them tribute. The Nemedians overcome the Fomorians in three battles until they themselves are defeated at Cnámross (distinguish from Fenian battle on the same site). The subsequent humiliations visited upon the Nemedians, especially an exacting annual tribute, cause them to rise up against their Fomorian masters, storming the fortress of Tory Island; they attack Tor Conaind, and the Nemedian champion Fergus Lethderg slays the Fomorian chief Conand. But the Fomorians prevail, and the disappointed Nemedians are scattered around the world.

In Cath Maige Tuired, the portrayal of the Fomorians draws more substantially on their divine origin. They intermarry freely with the Tuatha Dé Danann, the tribe of gods, implying that they are the marine counterparts of the latter. The Fomorian Elatha mac Delbaíth, for example, mates with Ériu of the Tuatha Dé Danann to produce Bres, who inherits the leadership of the Tuatha Dé Danann from Nuadu Airgetlám. The great champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Lug Lámfhota, is the grandson of a Fomorian. Although the root of the conflict between the Fomorians and the Tuatha Dé Danann in Cath Maige Tuired is extraordinarily deep, the pre-text within the narrative is the unsuitableness of Bres as king: he insults poets and demands humiliating tributes from the race of the gods made subject. Nuadu returns to power and Lug Lámfhota presents himself in court to aid the cause. The central conflict pits Lug against the Fomorian menace, Balor of the Evil Eye, who is in fact Lug’s grandfather. In an unexpected turn of events, Lug’s sling stone drives Balor’s eye back through his head, directing it towards his Fomorian comrades in arms and thus debilitating them. In the remainder of the story, the Tuatha Dé Danann rout the Fomorians and, amidst much slaughter, drive them back into the sea.

Other often-cited Fomorians include: Ágach, an enemy of the Tuatha Dé Danann; Cailitin, a wizard slain by Cúchulainn; Corb, a tribal deity; Delga, builder of the fortress of Dun Delgan [Dundalk]; Domnu, the mother of them all; Indech, a king killed at Mag Tuired; Lóbais, druid of the Fomorians; Morc, who emigrated from Africa; Néit, the war-god; Searbhán, the one-eyed keeper of rowan berries, who is sometimes a Fomorian; Tethra, a warrior-chief killed at Mag Tuired. The goat-headed Gaborchend may be derived from the Fomorians.

Under different guises, as demonic pirates or as spirits of the earth, as earlier commentators described them, the Fomorians have appealed to the imaginations of several writers in English. W. B. Yeats spoke often of the Fomorians, whose name he spelled either Fomor or Fomoroh. His sorceress Orchil in The Shadowy Waters (1905) and Dhoya (1891), the abandoned giant, are both Fomorians. The Foawr of Manx tradition, initially a local variant of the Fomorians, are stone-throwing giants. See also Alexander H. Krappe, Balor with the Evil Eye (New York, 1927).

JAMES MacKILLOP. “Fomorians.” A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 16 Mar. 2012 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

–At one point I mentioned that the Fomorians having one eye, one hand and one leg each was like the stereotyped pyrate with an eyepatch, hook and a claw. And on top of that, they were frequently redheaded or “Redbeards”

Anymore I think that was a darn good and sensible way of looking at the thing. And there is even some support for the notion they were associated with the sign of the Skull and Crossed bones, which of course predated the pirate age in Europe by several centuries and is also seen in Precolumbian Mesoamerica.
Crossbones as a Mayan Symbol of Ixchel:
Bones crossed in an “x” is Mayan symbol of foreboding. Crossbones are a mortal Mayan symbol calling upon the concept of crossroads, which are considered ominous locations. Bones crossed are symbolic of a juxtaposition between god/man, life/death, dark/light, etc. – there is a “meeting of duality” in this crossed bone gesture. Bones were often left at crossroad sites as a gesture to discard contaminants. For example: If you died of a disease within the community, your bones might have been left at the crossroads as a gesture to “excommunicate” the disease that took your body. Crossbones have been identified as adornments on the Ixchel’s clothing (in some of her renditions). This would imply she could be a sin-eater of sorts. It may also suggest Ixchel morphed into a warrior goddess at some point in the Mayan culture. She has been seen holding a spear and a shield too. These Mayan symbols along with crossbones might reinforce a vengeful attitude, and would suggest Ixchel as fully capable of reaping shrewd judgment in times of tribal war.

This incidentally parallels the crossed spears of the Egyptian Goddess Neith (Greek Athena)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomorians

Formorians

In Irish mythology, the Fomoire (or Fomorians) are a semi-divine race said to have inhabited Ireland in ancient times. They may have once been believed to be the beings who preceded the gods, similar to the Greek Titans. It has been suggested that they represent the gods of chaos and wild nature, as opposed to the Tuatha Dé Danann who represent the gods of human civilization. Alternatively, they may represent the gods of a proposed pre-Goidelic population of Ireland.

Name

The race are known as the Fomoire or Fomoiri, names that are often Anglicised as Fomorians, Fomors or Fomori. Later in Middle Irish they are also known as the Fomóraig. The etymology of the name Fomoire (plural) has been cause for some debate. Medieval Irish scholars thought the name contained the element muire “sea”, owing to their reputation as sea pirates.^[1] In 1888, John Rhys was the first to suggest that it is an Old Irish word composed of fo “under/below” and muire “sea”, concluding that it may refer to beings whose (original) habitat is under the sea.^[2] Observing two instances of the early genitive form fomra, Kuno Meyer arrives at the same etymology, but takes it to refer to land by the sea.^[3] Whitley Stokes and Rudolf Thurneysen, on the other hand, prefer to connect the second element *mor with a supposed Old English cognate mara “mare” (which survives today in the English word night-mare).^[4][5 Building on these hypotheses, Marie-Louise Sjoestedt interprets the combination of fo and the root *mor as a compound meaning “inferior” or “latent demons”.^[6]

Characteristics

They are sometimes said to have had the body of a man and the head of a goat, [ie, they are stereotyped devils] according to an 11th century text in Lebor na hUidre (the Book of the Dun Cow), or to have had one eye, one arm and one leg, but some, for example Elatha, the father of Bres, were very beautiful. Bres himself carries the epithet “the Beautiful.”

Irish mythology

The medieval myth of Partholon says that his followers were the first to invade Ireland after the flood, but the Fomorians were already there: Seathrún Céitinn reports a tradition that the Fomorians, led by Cíocal, had arrived two hundred years earlier and lived on fish and fowl until Partholon came, bringing the plough and oxen. Partholon defeated Cíocal in the Battle of Magh Ithe, but all his people later died of plague.

Then came Nemed and his followers. Ireland is said to have been empty for thirty years following the death of Partholon’s people, but Nemed and his followers encountered the Fomorians when they arrived. At this point Céitinn reports another tradition that the Fomorians were seafarers from Africa, descended from Noah’s son Ham. Nemed defeated them in several battles, killing their kings Gann and Sengann,^[7 but two new Fomorian leaders arose: Conand son of Faebar, who lived in Conand’s Tower on Tory Island, County Donegal, and Morc son of Dela (note that the first generation of the Fir Bolg were also said to be sons of Dela).

After Nemed’s death, Conand and Morc enslaved his people and demanded a heavy tribute: two thirds of their children, grain and cattle. Nemed’s son Fergus Lethderg gathered an army of sixty thousand, rose up against them and destroyed Conand’s Tower, but Morc attacked them with a huge fleet, and there was great slaughter on both sides. The sea rose over them and drowned most of the survivors: only thirty of Nemed’s people escaped in a single ship, scattering to the other parts of the world.

The next invasion was by the Fir Bolg, who did not encounter the Fomorians.

Next, the Tuatha Dé Danann, who are usually supposed to have been the gods of the Goidelic Irish, defeated the Fir Bolg in the first Battle of Magh Tuiredh and took possession of Ireland. Because their king, Nuada, had lost an arm in the battle and was no longer physically whole, their first king in Ireland was the half-Fomorian Bres. He was the result of a union between Ériu of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorian prince Elatha, who had come to her one night by sea on a silver boat. Both Elatha and Bres are described as very beautiful. However Bres turned out to be a bad king who forced the Tuatha Dé to work as slaves and pay tribute to the Fomorians. He lost authority when he was satirized for neglecting his kingly duties of hospitality. Nuada was restored to the kingship after his arm was replaced with a working one of silver, but the Tuatha Dé’s oppression by the Fomorians continued.

Bres fled to his father, Elatha, and asked for his help to restore him to the kingship. Elatha refused, on the grounds that he should not seek to gain by foul means what he couldn’t keep by fair. Bres instead turned to Balor, a more warlike Fomorian chief living on Tory Island, and raised an army.

The Tuatha Dé also prepared for war, under another half-Fomorian leader, Lug. His father was Cian of the Tuatha Dé, and his mother was Balor’s daughter Ethniu. This is presented as a dynastic marriage in early texts, but folklore preserves a more elaborate story, reminiscent the story of Zeus and Cronus from Greek mythology. Balor, who had been given a prophecy that he would be killed by his own grandson, locked Ethniu in a glass tower to keep her away from men. But when he stole Cian’s magical cow, Cian got his revenge by gaining entry to the tower, with the help of a druidess called Biróg, and seducing her. She gave birth to triplets, which Balor ordered drowned. Two of the babies either died or turned into the first seals, but Biróg saved one, Lug, and gave him to Manannan and Tailtiu to foster. As an adult Lug gained entry to Nuada’s court through his mastery of every art, and was given command over the army.

The Second Battle of Mag Tuireadh was fought between the Fomorians under Balor and the Tuatha Dé under Lug. Balor killed Nuada with his terrible, poisonous eye that killed all it looked upon. Lug faced his grandfather, but as he was opening his eye Lug shot a sling-stone that drove his eye out the back of his head, wreaking havoc on the Fomorian army behind. After Balor’s death the Fomorians were defeated and driven into the sea.

The Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians are closely related. Neit, a war god, is an ancestor of both.

The Training of Cú Chulainn

The Fomorians were still around at the time of Cú Chulainn. In the medieval Irish tale entitled The Training of Cú Chulainn, preserved as a copy by Richard Tipper in British Library, Egerton 106, it gives the following mention:

Then they parted from each other, and Cúchulainn went and looked forth on the great sea. As he was there he beheld a great assembly on the strand nearest to him, to wit, a hundred men and a hundred women seated in the bosom of the haven and the shore, and among them a maiden shapely, dear and beautiful, the most distinguished damsel of the world’s women, and they a-weeping and lamenting around the damsel. Cúchulainn came to the place and saluted them. ‘What is this sorrow or the misery upon you?’ says Cúchulainn. The damsel answered and this she said: ‘A royal tribute which the tribe of Fomorians carry out of this country every seventh year, namely, the first-born of the king’s children. And at this time it has come to me to go as that tribute, for to the king I am the dearest of his children.’‘What number comes to lift that tribute?’ asks Cúchulainn. ‘Three sons of Alatrom of the Fomorians,’ she answers, ‘and Dub, Mell and Dubros are their names.’ Not long had they been at those talks when they saw the well-manned, full-great vessel approaching them over the furious waves of the sea. And when the damsel’s people saw the ship coming, they all fled from her, and not a single person remained in her company save only Cúchulainn. And thus was that vessel: a single warrior, dark, gloomy, devilish, on the stern of that good ship, and he was laughing roughly, ill-fatedly, so that every one saw his entrails and his bowels through the body of his gullet. ‘What is that mirthfulness on the big man?’ asks Cúchulainn.‘Because,’ says the damsel, ‘he deems it excellent that thou shouldst be an addition to his tribute in this year rather than in any other year.’ ‘By my conscience,’ says Cúchulainn, ‘it would not be right for him to brag thus regarding me if he knew what would come of it.’ Then the big man came ashore to them into the strand, and stretched forth his long, sinewy, hideous arm to seize Cúchulainn in the very front of his royal tribute. Straightway Cúchulainn raised his right hand, and bared his sword, and gave a blow to the big man and struck off his head, so that he was the first that fell by Cúchulainn after having completed his training. And thereafter the other two fell by him, and he left them thus, neck to neck.^[8]

In later times any settled pirates or seaborne raiders were labeled Fomorians and the original meaning of the word was forgotten.

Select list of texts

• Cath Maige Tuired
• Lebor Gabála Érenn
• Togail Bruidne Dá Derga
• Lebor Bretnach
• Forfess Fer Falgae
• Elegy for Mess-Telmanm, Leinster prince

See also

• Domnu
• Irish mythology in popular culture

References

Footnotes

1. ^ O’Mulconry’s Glossary in Dublin, TCD MS 1317, p. 42b, has “Fomoir .i. fo mhuir ut alii putant, ? a fomo fl{?}o ambiae fl{?}i acain a quo nominatunt{?}.” Early Irish Glossaries Database.
2. ^ Rhys, Lectures on the origin and growth of religion (1888), p. 591.
3. ^ “ein nach der See zu gelegenes Land”. Meyer, Über die alteste irischen Dichtung II, p. 6.
4. ^ Stokes, “Second Battle of Moytura.” p. 128.
5. ^ Thurneysen, Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert. 2 vols. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1921: 64.
6. ^ Sjoestedt, Gods and heroes of the Celts, p. 5.
7. ^ Note that there were also two Fir Bolg kings called Gann and Sengann
8. ^ The Training of Cú Chulainn, ed. Stokes.

Sources

• “fomóir”, electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language. Retrieved: 1-11-2009.
• Meyer, Kuno. Über die älteste irische Dichtung II. Rhythmische alliterierende reimlose Strophen. Abhandlungen der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin, 1914.
• Rhys, John. Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Celtic heathendom. London and Edinburgh, 1888. p. 490.
• Sjoestedt, Marie-Louise. Gods and Heroes of the Celts. London, 1949. Translation by Miles Dillon of Sjoestedt’s Dieux et héros des Celtes. Paris, 1940.
• Stokes, Whitley. “The Second Battle of Moytura.” Revue Celtique 12 (1891): 52-130, 306-08.
• Stokes, Whitley (ed. and tr.). “The Training of Cúchulainn.” Revue Celtique 29 (1908). pp. 109–47. Edition and translation available from CELT.
• Thurneysen, Rudolf. Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert. 2 vols. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1921.

Further reading

• Carey, John. “Native elements in Irish pseudohistory.” In Cultural identity and cultural integration: Ireland and Europe in the early Middle Ages, ed. Doris R. Edel. Blackrock: Four Courts, 1995. pp. 45-60. ISBN 1-85182-167-8.
• Gray, Elizabeth A. “Cath Maige Tuired: Myth and structure (24-120).” Éigse 19 (1982). pp. 1–35.
• Gray, Elizabeth A. “Cath Maige Tuired: Myth and structure (84-93, 120-167).” Éigse 19 (1983). pp. 230–262.
• O’Rahilly, Thomas Francis. Early Irish history and mythology. Dublin, 1946.
• O’Brien, Michael A., ed.; Kelleher, John V. (intro. in the reprints of 1976 and 2005) (1962). Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae. 1. Dublin: DIAS. ISBN 0901282316. OCLC 56540733.

-That the Formorians came from Beyond the sea/ Over the horizon, they are spoken of as being Under the Sea, and so were the Biblical Rephaim. This blog reprints the scriptures relating to the Rephaim elsewhere. It is also important to realise that the Giant Warrior Anakim were travelling with the People of the Sea at the collapse of the European Megalithic age and that is why Goliath was alongside the Philistines: the Philistines were People of the Sea that early on gained knowledge of iron weapons from the Hittites and for a while they held the monopoly on them in the Holy Lands.

Quoting from my 2006 presentation of the theory in the Yahoo group  Bronze Age World Diffusion:

The Beaker Folk were evidently a
coalition of traders whose basic identifiable culture mixes traits
from Spain, Britain and Central Europe originally, and at different
times in different parts of its period of influence was stone age,
copper age and bronze age. The culture is credited with starting
most of the Bronze age in Europe and building Stonehenge (among other
things)
Several authors have seen the Beaker people as wealthy merchant
chieftans with a strong warrior tradition (archery items are
prominent among them) and with a religious hierarchy with priest-
kings that controlled vast wealth (and frequently were buried with
it; they were very obviously interested in gold and other metal ores)
Some similarities between the Adenas and the Beaker Folk (besides the
physical similarities) were the characteristic conical burial mounds
they made and the constructions of Woodhenges–evidently for
celestial observations (and forerunners to stonehenge) and sometimes
as large circular religious buildings with an open circular plaza in
the middle. They also favored similar cordmarked “Bell-Beaker”
pottery and when forced by poverty to use chipped stone tools, their
designs for these are similar. They also favored a specific set of
geometric designs as decorations, in particular nested diamond
shapes, but also similar animal abstract art when it occurs.

The Beaker Folk and Adenas are different from their forebearers in
both North America and Europe and represent a new physical type and
culture in both places, as mentioned by Barry Fell in Bronze Age
America. Some authors have suggested that they were an “Atlantean
brotherhood of mariners”, but this can be read simply as
a “TransAtlantic” brotherhood instead. Physically, they seem to be
based on Canary Islanders together with whatever European and
American elements they took into their society: their aristocracy
would seem to have been inbred, and showing recurrent recessive
traits because of this.
The mixing of the different peoples in the network would be why
Fell’s Bronze Age America old Northmen were writing in Tifnaig, and
why some Canary Islanders ran to blondism when they were discovered
by the Spanish.
It is my further opinion that they are related to the “White Incas”
whose mummies are found in Peru and in the western USA, and who
figure in Thor Heyerdahl’s KonTiki story, but that is a separate
discussion.This also deals wwith the Giants and Giant skulls reported
at Tiahuanaco, which would mean that the Giants who built Tiahuanaco
in Peru were directly related to the Beaker Folk “Giants” who built the
“Giant’s Dance” (Stonehenge) in England.

Above, European Bell Beaker with the characteristic Adena nested-diamond design. Below are a pair of Adena Bell Beakers similar to the European kinds.

Below, photographs from a “Racial typologies” work in the 1930s illustrating the Dinaric physical types, the one on the left from Germany and the one on the Right from Italy, both of them Beaker-folk survivors. The more extreme Dinarics have something of a “Frankenstein Monster” look, being very tall and with steep short skulls making them seem even taller.

At left is a skull from a burial at Stonehenge: at right are North American types of skulls as illustrated by Neumann: Lenapid is the Algonquin type, Walcolid is the Adena type, both strongly suggestive of European skulls. The Walcolid or Adena type is usually deformed and made shorter front to back due to the habit of cradleboarding the infants.

Woodhenge. Woodhenges are found as characrteristic of both the Beaker Folk and of the Adena Mound Builders

From ‘America B.C’. by Barry Fell.

“[Beaker]Pottery designs from Portugal, 4. New York and 5. New Hampshire.
[Pottery is of the type shown above]
This type of pottery design was common on the shores of the Atlantic,
evidence of a seafaring culture that spanned the oceans over 3,000
years ago.[the LAST date for this is given here as 1000BC]

“Yuri Kuchinski notes on Pan Atlantic similarities, that: “In both
Europe and the New World, at the very same time, Megalithic cultures
arise around 4500 BC; then on both continents, at the very same time,
copper-using Beaker-inspired cultures arise in 3000 BC. Next, the
Beaker Groups flee from conquest in 1500 BC, as the cultures of Western
Europe are disrupted by Celtic invasions. It is possible that some of
these peoples migrated to America, and their Beaker cultural traits
began to be widespread in North America. This period also marks the
beginning of the Olmec empire. Finally in both Europe and the New
World, at the very same time, Beaker-derived cultures collapse in 700
BC.” This claim is subsequently repeated and slightly elaborated in
Bronze Age America. And Ignatius Donnelly already sensed a connection in 1881.

The Beaker Folk, Adena Mound Builders and Olmecs all build round mounds of basically conical shape. Following is an internet encyclopedia’s information on Adenas [similarly printed in the group in December of 2006]
The Mound BuildersThe beginning of monumental architecture is currently being
reevaluated. The first monumental structures may have been built in
the Middle Archaic <USWoodlandArchaic.htm>, as early as 4500 – 4000
cal BC. More intensive mound building occurred during the Early and
Middle Woodland Period, especially among the Adena culture.
The Archaic Glacial Kame and Red Ochre cultures, located just to the
north and west of the Adena, foreshadow their development by burying
their dead in the natural mounds. Glacial Kame also shares some of
the burial rituals, including cremation. These customs are thought to
receive their full expression in the burial customs of the Adena.
They built a large number of conical burial mounds or tumuli. Grave
Creek Mound, Moundsville, West Virginia is thought to be the largest,
measuring over 20 meters (69 feet) in height and over 90 meters (295
feet) in diameter. Constructed over about a century in several
stages, it was probably built between 250 – 150 BC. The Miamisburg
Mound, Ohio, also thought to be an Adena mound, is of comparable
size.
The Adena constructed not only mounds, but also single causeway,
circular enclosures, sometimes with an interior ditch. Typically
these enclosures measured about 50 – 65 meters (150 – 200 feet) in
diameter. One of the largest burial mound and sacred circle complexes
is on Wolf’s Plain on the Hocking River, in The Plains, Athens
County, Ohio.

The Adena MoundsAbout 1000 B.C. we can mark the beginning of a new period for man in
North America. This period, which lasted until about 700 A.D., is
called the Woodland Period. It is during this time that a new culture
emerged and made significant settlements in what is now known as West
Virginia. These people are known to us today by the general term of
the Mound Builders. They were so named for their practice of creating
earthen burial mounds and other earthworks. The Mound Builders lived
over a wide range from the Atlantic, to the Midwest and the Ohio
Valley to the Mississippi Valley. The term “mound builders” refers to
several cultures that span a period of about 20 centuries.
The first group of people to develop this unique way of life were the
Adena people. From about 1000 B.C. to approximately 1 A.D. A later
group of Mound Builders, the Hopewell, lived from about 1 A.D. to 700
A.D. and represented a greater refinement over the earlier Adena
culture. Other cultures extended the Mound Builders to about 1300
A.D.

The Adena built mounds generally ranging in size from 20 to 300 feet
in diameter. The Adena lived in a wide area including much of present
day Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky and parts of Pennsylvania
and New York. They had well-organized societies since the
construction of the mounds took a great deal of effort.
The labor of many people must have been required since the Adena had
not yet developed more sophisticated means of construction. The large
amounts of earth had to be moved by the basket-load. Perhaps for this
reason, the mounds were often used more than once. We find in many
mounds there are multiple burials at different levels. Over a period
of time, the mounds gradually increased in size.
A majority of the people were cremated after death, placed in small
log tombs and covered with earth. More important people were often
buried in the flesh and laid to rest with a variety of artifacts such
as flints, beads, pipes, and mica and copper ornaments.
The Adena people were extensive traders as evidenced by the types of
material found in the mounds they constructed. Copper from the
western Great Lakes region, mica from the Carolinas and shells from
the Gulf of Mexico, all attest to the economic activity. In addition,
the culture also practiced agriculture, hunting and fishing.
A typical Adena house was built in a circular form from 15 to 45 feet
in diameter. The walls were made of paired posts tilted outward,
joined to other wood to form a conical-shaped roof. The roof was
covered with bark and the walls may have been bark, wickerwork or
some combination.
By about 500 B.C., the Adena culture began to slowly give way to a
more sophisticated culture, the Hopewell. Although little remains of
their villages, the Adena left the mounds as great monuments to mark
their passing.
…….

In the book, The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, author
John Haywood describes; “very large” bones in stone graves found in
Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1821. In White County, Tennessee,
an “ancient fortification” contained skeletons of gigantic stature
averaging at least 7 feet in length.
In February and June of 1931, large skeletons were found in the
Humboldt lake bed near Lovelock, Nevada. The first of these two
skeletons found measured 8 1/2 feet tall and appeared to have been
wrapped in a gum-covered fabric similar to the Egyptian manner. The
second skeleton was almost 10 feet long.(Review – Miner, June 19,
1931).
George W. Hill, M.D., dug out a skeleton “of unusual size” in a mound
of Ashland County, Ohio. In 1879, a nine-foot, eight-inch skeleton
was excavated from a mound near Brewersville, Indiana(Indianapolis
News, Nov 10, 1975)
In 1875 workmen were constructing a bridge near the mouth of Paw Paw
Creek at Rivesville. While digging through heavy clay soil they were
astonished to uncover three giant skeletons strands of reddish hair
clinging to the skulls. A local doctor was called to examine the
remains and was able ascertain after careful measurement, the
skeletons had supported people approximately 8 feet tall.
Just as black haired Greeks had an earlier past of taller blonder and
red haired people (the Titans), so did the Amerindians.

https://users.on.net/~mkfenn/page9.htm
……..

Genetics, Antigens and Blood groups
[Message at yahoo group Bronze Age World Diffusion, January 15 2007]
I had done a little reading on this matter while in IU in Bloomington
(Indiana) working on my anthropology degree, and I found that there
were faint traces of Old World genetic traits (especially in certain
blood groups, including rare traces of one type of Rhesus-negative
group cde) in Native Americans which probably represented inclusions
of preColumbian settlers and in two basic groups-the first and most
obvious being North/Western European genetics in North America,
paticularly radiating out from the Hudson’s bay and St. Lawrence
Seaway centers, and the other radiating out from the Gulf of Mexico
and Northern South America with Mediterranean traits.

I recently came across reference to genetic/antibody studies that
confirmed this latter supposition and even dated the arrival of this
genetic influx to between 1500 and 500 BC–and with a secondary
influx of early Indian (Dravidian) genetics from the Pacific at the
same time. The East Asian/Chinese genetic influx is basically non-
controversial, but it is not the ONLY line of gene flow into the
Americas there is.

Here is the source for that information;
“Genetics suggest a number of different arrivals of Eastern
Mediterranean genes into Central and South America at about 1200B.C.
There is also an Indian input into Venezuela about 500B.C.(James L
Guthrie -Human Lymphocyte Antigens, Pre-Columbiana, June 2001).

One product of this merging of cultures is the Cuna Indians who have
Eastern Mediterranean as well as Dravidian genetic and cultural
traits. They even have a script related to Harrapan and Rongo Rongo
script. All these three scripts read in the unique manner, whereby
one must turn the script upside down for each successive line. This
is termed boustrophedon script. It is more than coincidence that reed
rafts, the Birdman cult and boustrophedon script keep re-occurring
together.”

Link to info, https://users.on.net/~mkfenn/page4.htm

It also discusses Peruvian tin-mining starting about 4000 BC with a
series of “Ur” town names. It does not mention that tin ran out in
the Mesopotamian area about this time and from then up until about
1000 BC, expeditions were sent out to “The sunset lands of the far
west” for tin. I have a chart which shows this that I can scan. The
Tartessians were in on the early part of this, then the Phoenicians
followed by the Carthaginians.That would explain who was
transporting the giant warrior mercenaries back and forth
across the Atlantic.

The Mediterranean genetic influxes mentioned in the
Guthrie article quoted below have a range of probably
1500 to 750 BC and represent different genetic groups,
as I understand it.

My own research on Native American skulls leads me to
believe that there are two distinct types of
Mediterranean origin entering the Americas about
then–in the Southern USA and Northern South America
(Amazon region to Peru)–with at least the specific
North-African/Phoenician and Iberian types being
represented. This is similar to what Barry Fell said
in America BC but probably starts earlier than he
stated in that book: the two groups later being
represented specifically as the Zunis and the
Hopewells (respectively). The same or similar types
are represented in Early Mesoamerican and Andean
(pre-Inca) skulls. They follow on an older type from
3000-4000 BC that could be from mixed Egyptian and
Mesopotamian sources (both longheaded and shortheaded
or Armenoid types). This is once again on top of the
pre-existing different varieties of Paleoindians and
are generally rarer. And there is the unexpected situation that the
Adena moundbuilders, European Beakerfolk, and some of the old
Peruvian (“White Inca”) skulls all fall together as being similar.

My work on doing an analysis on the various skulls was summed
up in an academic paper I made in  the mid-1990s for IUPUI
and for my final paper in Osteology there. Interestingly, the
oldest type examined in that paper had distinctively Neanderthaloid
features and that was not only my opinion, the instructor noted
the fact herself in red ink on the original.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

Posted by Dale Drinnon at 12:17 PM

1 comment:

alanborkyMarch 18, 2012 at 2:24 PM

Dale I really think you’re onto something with your cyclops/pirate idea and the peculiar thing’s it’s right there out in plain sight unseen (by me at least) until you pointed it out.

You also alerted me to a possibility which’d never occurred to me before.

I’ve long suggested the story of Eve being made from Adam’s rib’s that era’s technical language for referring to the missing ‘rib’ on the Y chromosome.

I’ve also long suspected crossed spears and arrows etc’re (especially when a strong ‘magical’ female component’s involved [viz Jesus on the cross with the three Marys plus his mother]) allude to the female X chromosome.

I now finding myself wondering if the archetypal pirate devoid of a body part might be (amongst other things of course) a sort of avatar of the Y chromosome…?

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Cian of the Tuatha Dé, and his mother was Balor’s daughter Ethniu. This is presented as a dynastic marriage in early texts, but folklore preserves a more elaborate story, reminiscent the story of Zeus and Cronus from Greek mythology. Balor, who had been given a prophecy that he would be killed by his own grandson, locked Ethniu in a glass tower to keep her away from men. But when he stole Cian’s magical cow, Cian got his revenge by gaining entry to the tower, with the help of a druidess called Biróg, and seducing her. She gave birth to triplets, which Balor ordered drowned. Two of the babies either died or turned into the first seals, but Biróg saved one, Lug, and gave him to Manannan and Tailtiu to foster. As an adult Lug gained entry to Nuada’s court through his mastery of every art, and was given command over the army.

The Second Battle of Mag Tuireadh was fought between the Fomorians under Balor and the Tuatha Dé under Lug. Balor killed Nuada with his terrible, poisonous eye that killed all it looked upon. Lug faced his grandfather, but as he was opening his eye Lug shot a sling-stone that drove his eye out the back of his head, wreaking havoc on the Fomorian army behind. After Balor’s death the Fomorians were defeated and driven into the sea.

The Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians are closely related. Neit, a war god, is an ancestor of both.

The Training of Cú Chulainn

The Fomorians were still around at the time of Cú Chulainn. In the medieval Irish tale entitled The Training of Cú Chulainn, preserved as a copy by Richard Tipper in British Library, Egerton 106, it gives the following mention:

Then they parted from each other, and Cúchulainn went and looked forth on the great sea. As he was there he beheld a great assembly on the strand nearest to him, to wit, a hundred men and a hundred women seated in the bosom of the haven and the shore, and among them a maiden shapely, dear and beautiful, the most distinguished damsel of the world’s women, and they a-weeping and lamenting around the damsel. Cúchulainn came to the place and saluted them. ‘What is this sorrow or the misery upon you?’ says Cúchulainn. The damsel answered and this she said: ‘A royal tribute which the tribe of Fomorians carry out of this country every seventh year, namely, the first-born of the king’s children. And at this time it has come to me to go as that tribute, for to the king I am the dearest of his children.’‘What number comes to lift that tribute?’ asks Cúchulainn. ‘Three sons of Alatrom of the Fomorians,’ she answers, ‘and Dub, Mell and Dubros are their names.’ Not long had they been at those talks when they saw the well-manned, full-great vessel approaching them over the furious waves of the sea. And when the damsel’s people saw the ship coming, they all fled from her, and not a single person remained in her company save only Cúchulainn. And thus was that vessel: a single warrior, dark, gloomy, devilish, on the stern of that good ship, and he was laughing roughly, ill-fatedly, so that every one saw his entrails and his bowels through the body of his gullet. ‘What is that mirthfulness on the big man?’ asks Cúchulainn.‘Because,’ says the damsel, ‘he deems it excellent that thou shouldst be an addition to his tribute in this year rather than in any other year.’ ‘By my conscience,’ says Cúchulainn, ‘it would not be right for him to brag thus regarding me if he knew what would come of it.’ Then the big man came ashore to them into the strand, and stretched forth his long, sinewy, hideous arm to seize Cúchulainn in the very front of his royal tribute. Straightway Cúchulainn raised his right hand, and bared his sword, and gave a blow to the big man and struck off his head, so that he was the first that fell by Cúchulainn after having completed his training. And thereafter the other two fell by him, and he left them thus, neck to neck.^[8]

In later times any settled pirates or seaborne raiders were labeled Fomorians and the original meaning of the word was forgotten.

List of Fomorians

• Balor
• Bres
• Buarainech
• Cethlenn
• Cichol Gricenchos
• Conand
• Corb
• Elatha
• Ethniu
• Tethra

Select list of texts

• Cath Maige Tuired
• Lebor Gabála Érenn
• Togail Bruidne Dá Derga
• Lebor Bretnach
• Forfess Fer Falgae
• Elegy for Mess-Telmanm, Leinster prince

See also

• Domnu
• Irish mythology in popular culture

References

Footnotes

1. ^ O’Mulconry’s Glossary in Dublin, TCD MS 1317, p. 42b, has “Fomoir .i. fo mhuir ut alii putant, ? a fomo fl{?}o ambiae fl{?}i acain a quo nominatunt{?}.” Early Irish Glossaries Database.
2. ^ Rhys, Lectures on the origin and growth of religion (1888), p. 591.
3. ^ “ein nach der See zu gelegenes Land”. Meyer, Über die alteste irischen Dichtung II, p. 6.
4. ^ Stokes, “Second Battle of Moytura.” p. 128.
5. ^ Thurneysen, Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert. 2 vols. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1921: 64.
6. ^ Sjoestedt, Gods and heroes of the Celts, p. 5.
7. ^ Note that there were also two Fir Bolg kings called Gann and Sengann
8. ^ The Training of Cú Chulainn, ed. Stokes.

Sources

• “fomóir”, electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language. Retrieved: 1-11-2009.
• Meyer, Kuno. Über die älteste irische Dichtung II. Rhythmische alliterierende reimlose Strophen. Abhandlungen der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin, 1914.
• Rhys, John. Lectures on the origin and growth of religion as illustrated by Celtic heathendom. London and Edinburgh, 1888. p. 490.
• Sjoestedt, Marie-Louise. Gods and Heroes of the Celts. London, 1949. Translation by Miles Dillon of Sjoestedt’s Dieux et héros des Celtes. Paris, 1940.
• Stokes, Whitley. “The Second Battle of Moytura.” Revue Celtique 12 (1891): 52-130, 306-08.
• Stokes, Whitley (ed. and tr.). “The Training of Cúchulainn.” Revue Celtique 29 (1908). pp. 109–47. Edition and translation available from CELT.
• Thurneysen, Rudolf. Die irische Helden- und Königsage bis zum siebzehnten Jahrhundert. 2 vols. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1921.

Further reading

• Carey, John. “Native elements in Irish pseudohistory.” In Cultural identity and cultural integration: Ireland and Europe in the early Middle Ages, ed. Doris R. Edel. Blackrock: Four Courts, 1995. pp. 45-60. ISBN 1-85182-167-8.
• Gray, Elizabeth A. “Cath Maige Tuired: Myth and structure (24-120).” Éigse 19 (1982). pp. 1–35.
• Gray, Elizabeth A. “Cath Maige Tuired: Myth and structure (84-93, 120-167).” Éigse 19 (1983). pp. 230–262.
• O’Rahilly, Thomas Francis. Early Irish history and mythology. Dublin, 1946.
• O’Brien, Michael A., ed.; Kelleher, John V. (intro. in the reprints of 1976 and 2005) (1962). Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae. 1. Dublin: DIAS. ISBN 0901282316. OCLC 56540733.

-That the Formorians came from Beyond the sea/ Over the horizon, they are spoken of as being Under the Sea, and so were the Biblical Rephaim. This blog reprints the scriptures relating to the Rephaim elsewhere. It is also important to realise that the Giant Warrior Anakim were travelling with the People of the Sea at the collapse of the European Megalithic age and that is why Goliath was alongside the Philistines: the Philistines were People of the Sea that early on gained knowledge of iron weapons from the Hittites and for a while they held the monopoly on them in the Holy Lands.

Quoting from my 2006 presentation of the theory in the Yahoo group  Bronze Age World Diffusion:

The Beaker Folk were evidently a
coalition of traders whose basic identifiable culture mixes traits
from Spain, Britain and Central Europe originally, and at different
times in different parts of its period of influence was stone age,
copper age and bronze age. The culture is credited with starting
most of the Bronze age in Europe and building Stonehenge (among other
things)
Several authors have seen the Beaker people as wealthy merchant
chieftans with a strong warrior tradition (archery items are
prominent among them) and with a religious hierarchy with priest-
kings that controlled vast wealth (and frequently were buried with
it; they were very obviously interested in gold and other metal ores)
Some similarities between the Adenas and the Beaker Folk (besides the
physical similarities) were the characteristic conical burial mounds
they made and the constructions of Woodhenges–evidently for
celestial observations (and forerunners to stonehenge) and sometimes
as large circular religious buildings with an open circular plaza in
the middle. They also favored similar cordmarked “Bell-Beaker”
pottery and when forced by poverty to use chipped stone tools, their
designs for these are similar. They also favored a specific set of
geometric designs as decorations, in particular nested diamond
shapes, but also similar animal abstract art when it occurs.

The Beaker Folk and Adenas are different from their forebearers in
both North America and Europe and represent a new physical type and
culture in both places, as mentioned by Barry Fell in Bronze Age
America. Some authors have suggested that they were an “Atlantean
brotherhood of mariners”, but this can be read simply as
a “TransAtlantic” brotherhood instead. Physically, they seem to be
based on Canary Islanders together with whatever European and
American elements they took into their society: their aristocracy
would seem to have been inbred, and showing recurrent recessive
traits because of this.
The mixing of the different peoples in the network would be why
Fell’s Bronze Age America old Northmen were writing in Tifnaig, and
why some Canary Islanders ran to blondism when they were discovered
by the Spanish.
It is my further opinion that they are related to the “White Incas”
whose mummies are found in Peru and in the western USA, and who
figure in Thor Heyerdahl’s KonTiki story, but that is a separate
discussion.This also deals wwith the Giants and Giant skulls reported
at Tiahuanaco, which would mean that the Giants who built Tiahuanaco
in Peru were directly related to the Beaker Folk “Giants” who built the
“Giant’s Dance” (Stonehenge) in England.

Above, European Bell Beaker with the characteristic Adena nested-diamond design. Below are a pair of Adena Bell Beakers similar to the European kinds.

Below, photographs from a “Racial typologies” work in the 1930s illustrating the Dinaric physical types, the one on the left from Germany and the one on the Right from Italy, both of them Beaker-folk survivors. The more extreme Dinarics have something of a “Frankenstein Monster” look, being very tall and with steep short skulls making them seem even taller.

At left is a skull from a burial at Stonehenge: at right are North American types of skulls as illustrated by Neumann: Lenapid is the Algonquin type, Walcolid is the Adena type, both strongly suggestive of European skulls. The Walcolid or Adena type is usually deformed and made shorter front to back due to the habit of cradleboarding the infants.

Woodhenge. Woodhenges are found as characrteristic of both the Beaker Folk and of the Adena Mound Builders

From ‘America B.C’. by Barry Fell.

“[Beaker]Pottery designs from Portugal, 4. New York and 5. New Hampshire.
[Pottery is of the type shown above]
This type of pottery design was common on the shores of the Atlantic,
evidence of a seafaring culture that spanned the oceans over 3,000
years ago.[the LAST date for this is given here as 1000BC]

“Yuri Kuchinski notes on Pan Atlantic similarities, that: “In both
Europe and the New World, at the very same time, Megalithic cultures
arise around 4500 BC; then on both continents, at the very same time,
copper-using Beaker-inspired cultures arise in 3000 BC. Next, the
Beaker Groups flee from conquest in 1500 BC, as the cultures of Western
Europe are disrupted by Celtic invasions. It is possible that some of
these peoples migrated to America, and their Beaker cultural traits
began to be widespread in North America. This period also marks the
beginning of the Olmec empire. Finally in both Europe and the New
World, at the very same time, Beaker-derived cultures collapse in 700
BC.” This claim is subsequently repeated and slightly elaborated in
Bronze Age America. And Ignatius Donnelly already sensed a connection in 1881.

The Beaker Folk, Adena Mound Builders and Olmecs all build round mounds of basically conical shape. Following is an internet encyclopedia’s information on Adenas [similarly printed in the group in December of 2006]
The Mound BuildersThe beginning of monumental architecture is currently being
reevaluated. The first monumental structures may have been built in
the Middle Archaic <USWoodlandArchaic.htm>, as early as 4500 – 4000
cal BC. More intensive mound building occurred during the Early and
Middle Woodland Period, especially among the Adena culture.
The Archaic Glacial Kame and Red Ochre cultures, located just to the
north and west of the Adena, foreshadow their development by burying
their dead in the natural mounds. Glacial Kame also shares some of
the burial rituals, including cremation. These customs are thought to
receive their full expression in the burial customs of the Adena.
They built a large number of conical burial mounds or tumuli. Grave
Creek Mound, Moundsville, West Virginia is thought to be the largest,
measuring over 20 meters (69 feet) in height and over 90 meters (295
feet) in diameter. Constructed over about a century in several
stages, it was probably built between 250 – 150 BC. The Miamisburg
Mound, Ohio, also thought to be an Adena mound, is of comparable
size.
The Adena constructed not only mounds, but also single causeway,
circular enclosures, sometimes with an interior ditch. Typically
these enclosures measured about 50 – 65 meters (150 – 200 feet) in
diameter. One of the largest burial mound and sacred circle complexes
is on Wolf’s Plain on the Hocking River, in The Plains, Athens
County, Ohio.

The Adena MoundsAbout 1000 B.C. we can mark the beginning of a new period for man in
North America. This period, which lasted until about 700 A.D., is
called the Woodland Period. It is during this time that a new culture
emerged and made significant settlements in what is now known as West
Virginia. These people are known to us today by the general term of
the Mound Builders. They were so named for their practice of creating
earthen burial mounds and other earthworks. The Mound Builders lived
over a wide range from the Atlantic, to the Midwest and the Ohio
Valley to the Mississippi Valley. The term “mound builders” refers to
several cultures that span a period of about 20 centuries.
The first group of people to develop this unique way of life were the
Adena people. From about 1000 B.C. to approximately 1 A.D. A later
group of Mound Builders, the Hopewell, lived from about 1 A.D. to 700
A.D. and represented a greater refinement over the earlier Adena
culture. Other cultures extended the Mound Builders to about 1300
A.D.

The Adena built mounds generally ranging in size from 20 to 300 feet
in diameter. The Adena lived in a wide area including much of present
day Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky and parts of Pennsylvania
and New York. They had well-organized societies since the
construction of the mounds took a great deal of effort.
The labor of many people must have been required since the Adena had
not yet developed more sophisticated means of construction. The large
amounts of earth had to be moved by the basket-load. Perhaps for this
reason, the mounds were often used more than once. We find in many
mounds there are multiple burials at different levels. Over a period
of time, the mounds gradually increased in size.
A majority of the people were cremated after death, placed in small
log tombs and covered with earth. More important people were often
buried in the flesh and laid to rest with a variety of artifacts such
as flints, beads, pipes, and mica and copper ornaments.
The Adena people were extensive traders as evidenced by the types of
material found in the mounds they constructed. Copper from the
western Great Lakes region, mica from the Carolinas and shells from
the Gulf of Mexico, all attest to the economic activity. In addition,
the culture also practiced agriculture, hunting and fishing.
A typical Adena house was built in a circular form from 15 to 45 feet
in diameter. The walls were made of paired posts tilted outward,
joined to other wood to form a conical-shaped roof. The roof was
covered with bark and the walls may have been bark, wickerwork or
some combination.
By about 500 B.C., the Adena culture began to slowly give way to a
more sophisticated culture, the Hopewell. Although little remains of
their villages, the Adena left the mounds as great monuments to mark
their passing.
…….

In the book, The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, author
John Haywood describes; “very large” bones in stone graves found in
Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1821. In White County, Tennessee,
an “ancient fortification” contained skeletons of gigantic stature
averaging at least 7 feet in length.
In February and June of 1931, large skeletons were found in the
Humboldt lake bed near Lovelock, Nevada. The first of these two
skeletons found measured 8 1/2 feet tall and appeared to have been
wrapped in a gum-covered fabric similar to the Egyptian manner. The
second skeleton was almost 10 feet long.(Review – Miner, June 19,
1931).
George W. Hill, M.D., dug out a skeleton “of unusual size” in a mound
of Ashland County, Ohio. In 1879, a nine-foot, eight-inch skeleton
was excavated from a mound near Brewersville, Indiana(Indianapolis
News, Nov 10, 1975)
In 1875 workmen were constructing a bridge near the mouth of Paw Paw
Creek at Rivesville. While digging through heavy clay soil they were
astonished to uncover three giant skeletons strands of reddish hair
clinging to the skulls. A local doctor was called to examine the
remains and was able ascertain after careful measurement, the
skeletons had supported people approximately 8 feet tall.
Just as black haired Greeks had an earlier past of taller blonder and
red haired people (the Titans), so did the Amerindians.

https://users.on.net/~mkfenn/page9.htm
……..

Genetics, Antigens and Blood groups
[Message at yahoo group Bronze Age World Diffusion, January 15 2007]
I had done a little reading on this matter while in IU in Bloomington
(Indiana) working on my anthropology degree, and I found that there
were faint traces of Old World genetic traits (especially in certain
blood groups, including rare traces of one type of Rhesus-negative
group cde) in Native Americans which probably represented inclusions
of preColumbian settlers and in two basic groups-the first and most
obvious being North/Western European genetics in North America,
paticularly radiating out from the Hudson’s bay and St. Lawrence
Seaway centers, and the other radiating out from the Gulf of Mexico
and Northern South America with Mediterranean traits.

I recently came across reference to genetic/antibody studies that
confirmed this latter supposition and even dated the arrival of this
genetic influx to between 1500 and 500 BC–and with a secondary
influx of early Indian (Dravidian) genetics from the Pacific at the
same time. The East Asian/Chinese genetic influx is basically non-
controversial, but it is not the ONLY line of gene flow into the
Americas there is.

Here is the source for that information;
“Genetics suggest a number of different arrivals of Eastern
Mediterranean genes into Central and South America at about 1200B.C.
There is also an Indian input into Venezuela about 500B.C.(James L
Guthrie -Human Lymphocyte Antigens, Pre-Columbiana, June 2001).

One product of this merging of cultures is the Cuna Indians who have
Eastern Mediterranean as well as Dravidian genetic and cultural
traits. They even have a script related to Harrapan and Rongo Rongo
script. All these three scripts read in the unique manner, whereby
one must turn the script upside down for each successive line. This
is termed boustrophedon script. It is more than coincidence that reed
rafts, the Birdman cult and boustrophedon script keep re-occurring
together.”

Link to info, https://users.on.net/~mkfenn/page4.htm

It also discusses Peruvian tin-mining starting about 4000 BC with a
series of “Ur” town names. It does not mention that tin ran out in
the Mesopotamian area about this time and from then up until about
1000 BC, expeditions were sent out to “The sunset lands of the far
west” for tin. I have a chart which shows this that I can scan. The
Tartessians were in on the early part of this, then the Phoenicians
followed by the Carthaginians.That would explain who was
transporting the giant warrior mercenaries back and forth
across the Atlantic.

The Mediterranean genetic influxes mentioned in the
Guthrie article quoted below have a range of probably
1500 to 750 BC and represent different genetic groups,
as I understand it.

My own research on Native American skulls leads me to
believe that there are two distinct types of
Mediterranean origin entering the Americas about
then–in the Southern USA and Northern South America
(Amazon region to Peru)–with at least the specific
North-African/Phoenician and Iberian types being
represented. This is similar to what Barry Fell said
in America BC but probably starts earlier than he
stated in that book: the two groups later being
represented specifically as the Zunis and the
Hopewells (respectively). The same or similar types
are represented in Early Mesoamerican and Andean
(pre-Inca) skulls. They follow on an older type from
3000-4000 BC that could be from mixed Egyptian and
Mesopotamian sources (both longheaded and shortheaded
or Armenoid types). This is once again on top of the
pre-existing different varieties of Paleoindians and
are generally rarer. And there is the unexpected situation that the
Adena moundbuilders, European Beakerfolk, and some of the old
Peruvian (“White Inca”) skulls all fall together as being similar.

My work on doing an analysis on the various skulls was summed
up in an academic paper I made in  the mid-1990s for IUPUI
and for my final paper in Osteology there. Interestingly, the
oldest type examined in that paper had distinctively Neanderthaloid
features and that was not only my opinion, the instructor noted
the fact herself in red ink on the original.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

Posted by Dale Drinnon at 12:17 PM

1 comment:

alanborkyMarch 18, 2012 at 2:24 PM

Dale I really think you’re onto something with your cyclops/pirate idea and the peculiar thing’s it’s right there out in plain sight unseen (by me at least) until you pointed it out.

You also alerted me to a possibility which’d never occurred to me before.

I’ve long suggested the story of Eve being made from Adam’s rib’s that era’s technical language for referring to the missing ‘rib’ on the Y chromosome.

I’ve also long suspected crossed spears and arrows etc’re (especially when a strong ‘magical’ female component’s involved [viz Jesus on the cross with the three Marys plus his mother]) allude to the female X chromosome.

I now finding myself wondering if the archetypal pirate devoid of a body part might be (amongst other things of course) a sort of avatar of the Y chromosome…?

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