I got this from Wikipedia.
Manannán or
Manann (
Old Irish Manandán), also known as
Manannán mac Lir (
Mac Lir meaning "son of the sea"),
[3] is a
sea deity in
Irish mythology. He is affiliated with both the
Tuatha Dé Danann and the
Fomorians. In the tales, he is said to own a boat named
Scuabtuinne ("Wave Sweeper"), a sea-borne chariot drawn by the horse
Enbarr, a powerful sword named
Fragarach ("The Answerer"), and a
cloak of invisibility (
féth fíada). He is seen as the guardian of the
Otherworld and one who
ferries souls to the afterlife. Manannán is furthermore identified with the
trickster figure
Bodach an Chóta Lachtna ("the churl in the drab coat").
[4]
Manannán appears also in
Scottish and
Manx legend, and some sources say the
Isle of Man (
Manainn) is named after him, while others say he is named after the island. He is cognate with the Welsh figure
Manawydan fab Llŷr.
Manannán is also known as
Oirbsiu or
Oirbsen, from which
Lough Corrib takes its name.
[5]
His name is spelt
Manandán in
Old Irish,
Manannán in modern Irish and
Scottish Gaelic, and
Mannan in
Manx Gaelic. He is also given two surnames. The most common is
Mac Lir, which may mean "son of the sea" or "son of
Ler". It has been suggested that Ler was a sea god whose role was taken over by Manannán. The other is
Mac Alloit or
Mac Alloid. Allot or Allod may be another name for Ler.
The
late medieval Yellow Book of Lecan (written c. 1400) says there were four individuals called
Manandán who lived at different times. They are:
Manandán mac Alloit, a "druid of the Tuath Dé Danann" whose "proper name was Oirbsen";
Manandán mac Lir, a great sailor, merchant and druid;
Manandán mac Cirp, king of the Isles and Mann; and
Manandán mac Atgnai, who took in the
sons of Uisnech and sailed to Ireland to avenge their deaths.
[6]
His name is derived from that of the
Isle of Man, which itself may come from a Celtic word for "mountain", i.e. "he of [the isle of] Man; he of the mountain".
[7]
In medieval Irish tradition, it appears that Manannán came to be
considered eponymous of the island (rather than vice versa); in the
earliest Irish mythological texts, Manannan is a king of the Otherworld,
but the
Sanas Cormaic[year needed] identifies a euhemerized Manannán as "a famous merchant who resided in, and gave name to, the Isle of Man".
[8] Later, Manannán is recorded as the first
king of Mann in a Manx poem dated 1504.
[9]
In Manx tradition, he is known as
Mannan beg mac y Leir, "little Mannan, son of the sea". Manannán's
Welsh equivalent is
Manawydan fab Llyr.
Manannán appears in all of the four cycles of
Irish mythology, although he only plays a prominent role in a limited number of tales.
In the
Ulster Cycle tale,
Serglige Con Culainn ("The Sickbed of Cúchulainn") Manannán's wife,
Fand, has an ill-fated affair with the
Irish warrior
Cúchulainn. When Fand sees that Cúchulainn's jealous wife,
Emer
is worthy of him (and accompanied by a troop of armed women), she
decides to return to Manannán, who then shakes his magical cloak of
mists between Fand and Cúchulainn so that they may never meet again.
[11][12]
In
The Voyage of Bran, Manannán prophesied to Bran that a great warrior would be descended from him.
The 8th-century saga
Compert Mongáin recounts the deeds of a legendary son,
Mongán mac Fiachnai, fathered by Manannán on the wife of
Fiachnae mac Báetáin.
According to the
Book of Fermoy,
a manuscript of the 14th to the 15th century, "he was a pagan, a
lawgiver among the Tuatha Dé Danann, and a necromancer possessed of
power to envelope himself and others in a mist, so that they could not
be seen by their enemies."
[13] It was by this method that he was said to protect the Isle of Man from discovery.
Manannán was associated with a "cauldron of regeneration". This is seen in the tale of
Cormac mac Airt,
among other tales. Here, he appeared at Cormac's ramparts in the guise
of a warrior who told him he came from a land where old age, sickness,
death, decay, and falsehood were unknown (the
Otherworld was also known as the "Land of Youth" or the "Land of the Living").
[14]
As guardian of the
Blessed Isles as well as
Mag Mell he also has strong associations with
Emhain Abhlach, the Isle of Apple Trees, where the
magical silver apple branch is found.
[14]
Manannán had many magical items. He gave
Cormac mac Airt
his magic goblet of truth; he had a ship that did not need sails named
"Wave Sweeper"; he owned a cloak of mists that granted him invisibility,
a flaming helmet, and a sword named
Fragarach
("Answerer" or "Retaliator") that could slice through any armour and
upon command when pointed at a target could make that target answer any
question asked truthfully. He also owned a horse called "
Enbarr of the Flowing Mane" which could travel over water as easily as land. Some sources say that, to Manannán, the sea is like a flowery plain.
[15]
Mannanán also had swine whose flesh provided food for feasting by the gods, and then regenerated each day, like that of
Odin's boar
Sæhrímnir in
Scandinavian myth.
[16]
Manannán's father is the sea-god
Ler ("Sea; Ocean";
Lir is the genitive form), whose role he seems to take over. According to
Táin Bó Cúailnge (the Cattle Raid of Cooley), his wife is the beautiful goddess,
Fand
("Pearl of Beauty" or "A Tear" – later remembered as a "Fairy Queen",
though earlier mentions point to her also being a sea deity). Other
sources say his wife was the goddess
Áine, though she is at other times said to be his daughter. Manannán had a daughter, whose name was
Niamh of the Golden Hair. It is also probable that another daughter was
Clídna,
but sources treat this differently. Either way, she is a young woman
from Manannán's lands, whose epithet is "of the Fair Hair". Mongán mac
Fiachnai is a late addition to the mac Lir family tree. The historical
Mongán was a son of
Fiachnae mac Báetáin,
born towards the end of the 6th century. According to legend Fiachnae,
who was at war in Scotland, came home with a victory because of a
bargain made with Manannán (either by him, or by his wife) to let
Manannán have a child by his wife. This child, Mongán, was supposedly
taken to the Otherworld when he was very young, to be raised there by
Manannán. The
Compert Mongáin tells the tale.
[citation needed]
In the Dinsenchas Manannán is also described as the father of Ibel,
after whose death Manannán cast draughts of grief from his heart that
became Loch Ruidi, Loch Cuan, and Loch Dacaech.
[17]
Manannán is often seen in the traditional role of foster father, raising a number of foster children including
Lugh of the great hand and the children of
Deirdre.
Manannán appears to have etymological ties to the
Isle of Man. An early Manx poem, dated to 1504, identifies the first
king of the island as one
Manannan-beg-mac-y-Lheirr, "little Manannan, son of the Sea" (or, "son of
Leir"):
[18]
- Manannan beg va Mac y Leirr / Shen yn chied er ec row rieau ee; /
Agh myr share oddym's cur-my-ner, / Cha row eh hene agh An-chreestee.
- "Little Manannan was a son of Leirr; he was the first that ever had
it [the island]; but as I can best conceive, he was himself a heathen."
The poem goes on to describe how Manannan defended the island by
magic, by conjuring up mists and creating the illusion of a defending
army. In
Manx Fairy Tales (1911), this theme is developed into Manannan creating the illusion of a fleet against the Viking invaders.
[19][20]
Manx legends
[21] also tell of four items that he gave to
Lugh as parting gifts, when the boy went to aid the people of
Dana against the
Fomorians. These were:
[21]
"Manannan's coat, wearing which he could not be wounded, and also his
breastplate, which no weapon could pierce. His helmet had two precious
stones set in front and one behind, which flashed as he moved. And
Manannan girt him for the fight with his own deadly sword, called the
Answerer, from the wound of which no man ever recovered, and those who
were opposed to it in battle were so terrified that their strength left
them." Lugh also took Enbarr of the Flowing Mane, and was joined by
Manannan's own sons and
Fairy Cavalcade. When he looked back on leaving, Lugh saw
[21]
"his foster-father's noble figure standing on the beach. Manannan was
wrapped in his magic cloak of colours, changing like the sun from
blue-green to silver, and again to the purple of evening. He waved his
hand to Lugh, and cried: 'Victory and blessing with thee!' So Lugh,
glorious in his youth and strength, left his Island home."
In her
Gods and Fighting Men (1904),
[22] Augusta, Lady Gregory includes a number of tales about Manannán from the
Book of Invasions (part I. book IV, chapters 8–14).
The tale "Manannan at Play" (IV.9) features the god as a clown and
beggar who turns out to be a harper. Manannán (here in his trickster
guise of the
Bodach), plays a number of pranks, some of which
result in serious trouble; by the end of the tale, he compensates for
the pranks that got him in trouble.
[23]
In the tale "
His Three Calls to Cormac" (IV.11), Manannán tempts the Irish King
Cormac mac Airt with treasure, specifically a "
shining branch having nine apples of red gold,"
in exchange for his family. Cormac is led into the Otherworld and
taught a harsh lesson by Manannán, but in the end his wife and children
are restored to him. Also, Manannán rewards him with a magic cup which
breaks if three lies are spoken over it and is made whole again if three
truths are spoken.
