Manannán or Manann, also known as Manannán mac Lir ("son of the sea"), is a warrior and king of the Otherworld in Irish mythology who is associated with the sea and often interpreted as a sea god. He is affiliated with the Tuatha Dé Danann but is also occasionally described as a Fomorian. In the tales, he is said to own a boat named Scuabtuinne ("wave sweeper"), a sea-borne chariot drawn by the horse Enbarr ("water foam"), a powerful sword named Fragarach ("the answerer"), and a cloak of invisibility (féth fíada). He is seen as the ruler and guardian of the Otherworld. Manannán is furthermore identified with several trickster figures including the Gilla Decair and the Bodach an Chóta Lachtna ("the churl in the drab coat").
Manannán appears also in Scottish and Manx legend, where he is known as Manannan mac y Leir ("little Mannan, son of the sea"). Some sources say the Isle of Man (Mannin) is named after him, while others say he is named after the island. He is cognate with the Welsh figure Manawydan fab Llŷr.
Names and toponomy
Manannán is given several names, bynames, epithets and surnames. His name is spelt Manandán in Old Irish, Manannán in modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and Mannan in Manx Gaelic. 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. The 9th century Sanas Cormaic (Cormac's Glossary) euhemerizes Manannán as "a famous merchant" of the Isle of Man and the best sailor in western Europe, who knew by "studying the heavens" when the weather would be good and bad.
Some of the names equated with Manannan include:
- Oirbsiu or Oirbsen
- Duartaine O'Duartaine
- Cathal O'Cein (Cathal is derived from battle and means "great warrior")
- Gilla de ("Boyservant")
- Gilla Decair ("Troublesome boyservant")
Etymology
His name is derived from the Isle of Man with the -an suffix indicating "one from the Isle of Man". This itself may come from a Celtic word for "mountain" or "rise", as the Isle of Man rises from the sea on the horizon.[8] Alternatively, it may come from an earlier Indo-European word for water or wetness. In medieval Irish tradition, it appears that Manannán came to be considered eponymous of the island (rather than vice versa).
Surname and Epithets
The most common epithets for Manannán reinforce his association with war and the sea:
- Mac Lir, which means "son of the sea" or "son of Ler
- Mac Alloit or Mac Alloid, which means "son of the soil or land"
- chief of your [Tuatha De] kings
- senior of your [Tuatha De] hosts
- lord of champions
- shining light of your batallions
- tutor in valor, in feats of arms, in magic
- foster son of the Dagda
- the great and mighty
It has been suggested that his father Ler was a sea god whose role was taken over by Manannán. Manannán's other surname Mac Alloit or Mac Alloid means "son of the soil or land," so that Manannán is effectively son of the sea and land.
Toponomy
There are places named after Manannán in Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland. In Ireland, most of them are on the coast or contain water features. They include Mannin Lake (Loch Mhanainn) in County Mayo, Mannin Bay (Cuan Mhanainn) in County Galway, Mannin Island (Manainn) in County Cork, Cashelmanannan (Caiseal Mhanannáin, "Manannán's ringfort") and Sheevannan (Sí Mhanannáin, "Manannán's fairy mound") in County Roscommon, Derrymannin (Doire Mhanainn, "Manann's oak") in County Mayo, and Carrickmannan (Carraig Mhanainn, "Manann's rock") in County Down. Also in Ireland Lough Corrib takes its name from Manannán's alternate name Oirbsiu or Oirbsen. The placenames Clackmannan (Clach Mhanainn) and Slamannan (Sliabh Mhanainn) in Scotland may also refer to Manann.
In Irish mythology
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: Tochmarc Étaíne ("The Wooing of Étaín"), Serglige Con Culainn ("The Wasting Sickness of Cúchulainn"), Tochmarc Luaine "The Wooing of Luan"
- In the Cycles of the Kings: Immram Brain maic Febail ("The Voyage of Bran son of Febal)", Echtra Cormaic maic Airt ("The Adventure of Cormac mac Airt"), Compert Mongáin ("The Birth of Mongán")
- In the Mythological Cycle: Lebor Gabála Érenn ("The Book of Invasions"), First Recension, Altram Tige Dá Medar ("The Nourishment of the Houses of Two Milk-Vessels")
- other Old Irish texts: Sanas Cormaic ("Cormac's Glossary"), The Voyage of Bran, Compert Mongáin, His Three Calls to Cormac ("Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise")
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.
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.
Characteristics
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." 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" (Tír na nÓg) ).
He is lord and guardian of the Blessed Isles, Mag Mell, and Emhain Abhlach, the Isle of Apple Trees, where the magical silver apple branch is found. When he visits the land of the living, his movement is compared to the wind, a hawk or swallow, and sometimes takes the form of a thundering wheel rolling across the landscape.
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.
Mannanán bestowed upon the warriors of the Tuatha Dé the Féth fíada, Fleadh Goibhneann (the Feast of Goibniu), and Mucca Mhannanain (Mannanán's swine) whose regenerating flesh provided food for feasting by the gods, similar to Odin's boar Sæhrímnir in Scandinavian myth. Mannanán also owned a speckled cow that he and Aengus retrieved from India along with a dun cow, two golden goblets, and two spancels of silk. In "The Fosterage of the House of the Two Pails, Eithne, daughter of Dicu, refuses to eat or drink anything from the houses of Mannanán and Aengus except for the honey-flavored, intoxicating milk from the Speckled and Dun Cows.
Familial relations
Manannán's father is the sea-god Ler ("Sea; Ocean"; Lir is the genitive form), whose role he seems to take over. As Oirbsen, his father is named as Elloth, son of Elatha. In "The Fosterage of the House of the Two Pails," Manannán calls himself the foster-son of the Dagda. 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". Another daughter who was given the "baptized" name of Curcog (meaning "bushy tuft") is also described as having yellow hair and was given by Manannán to be fostered in the house of Aengus. Manannán is also given sons named Eachdond Mor and Gaidiar, who raped Becuma Cneisgel. Another daughter of Manannán's was said to be Saint Athrachta; according to oral legend, she tried to build a causeway across Lough Gara by carrying large stones in her petticoat but was prevented by modesty. In another legend of Athrachta, she was said to live at the bottom of Lough Gara and only emerged every seven years to visit her sister Ke. Athractha cured a woman, and once a dragon with the roar of a lion emerged from the sludge and was vanquished by the Holy Virgin.
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. 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.
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.
Two brothers of Manannán are named, after whom cleared plains were named - Bron, who it is implied was slain by Fergus and Ceite. Similarly, in Welsh folklore Brân the Blessed is the brother of Manawydan.
Manx sources
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"):
- 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.
The poem says that the Manx offered rushes to Manannán, and there is evidence these wild plants—which typically grow in wetlands—were sacred to him.
Manx legends 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: "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 "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."
Gods and Fighting Men
In her Gods and Fighting Men (1904), 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.
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.
Folklore
O'Donnell's Kern
In O'Donnell's Kern, Manannan appears as a kern or serving man at the courts of various historical personages from 16th Century Ireland. As a kern, Manannan is repeatedly described as wearing thinly striped clothing and leather brogues (shoes) soaking with water, having ears and half his sword protruding from his mantle, and carrying three scorched holly javelins (elsewhere described as a single javelin) in his right hand. In this guise, he again appears as a trickster, walking into his hosts' homes uninvited and undetected by the guardsmen.
At Black Hugh O'Donnell's home in Ballyshannon, Manannan challenges the court musicians to a competition, and with a harp plays music so sweetly melodious that it can put anyone to sleep – including the suffering and dying. O'Donnell declares he has never heard such beautiful music and offers the kern new clothing; the kern refuses O'Donnell's gift and also refuses to stay in his court (indicating he must go to Cnoc Aine the next day), so O'Donnell has his men surround the kern to prevent his departure. Manannan again plays music, but this time the strain causes O'Donnell's men to hack each other to pieces with axes. When he leaves O'Donnell, Manannan extracts a fine of twenty cattle and land, and in exchange, rubs a magic herb on the gums of O'Donnell's slaughtered men that revives them to life.
At the kern's next stop near Limerick, Shane Mac an Iarla invites the kern into his home, having heard of Manannan's reputation with reading and music, to which Manannan declares he is not impotent. However when Shane brings the kern an instrument and a book, the kern is unable to read or play until Shane lampoons him. When Shane asks Manannan whether he has visited Desmond before, he declares that he was there with the Fianna, several millennia earlier.
Next, the kern travels to Leinster to visit MacEochaidh, who is incapacitated with a broken leg and blood poisoning. When asked about his art, the kern declares that he is a healer and tells MacEochaidh that if he will put his stingy, churlish behaviour past him he would be healed. Manannan then dresses MacEochaidh's leg with a healing herb, who immediately recovers from his affliction. MacEochaidh then throws a feast for Manannan and offers him his buxom daughter along with three hundred each of cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs. Before he can receive his reward, however, the kern flees MacEochaidh's house to his next destination.
He goes to Sligo where he encounters O'Conner, who is about to make war with Munster. After some ridicule from O'Conner's men, the kern offers his military services to O'Conner if he agrees that nothing unfair will be done to the kern. O'Conner's men engage in cattle raiding, and when the men of Munster attempt to steal them back, Manannan kills them with a bow and 24 arrows. He then drives all the cattle across the Shannon and back to O'Conner in Sligo. At a feast to celebrate the victory, O'Conner slights Manannan by drinking the first toast without a thought to the kern, so Manannan recites some verses indicating his displeasure and then vanishes from the company.
Then, the kern goes to Teigue O'Kelly's home and describes his art as conjuring. He bluffs O'Kelly with two spurious tricks (wagging an ear and making a reed disappear), then from a bag conjures a thread that he throws into the air and fixes to a cloud, a hare, a beagle, and a dog boy. From another bag he pulls a woman, and all the characters go running up the thread into the clouds. The king remarks that something bad will happen, such as the boy ending up with the woman, and the dog eating the hare. When Manannan reels in his thread, this is indeed, exactly what the men discover has happened, and O'Kelly, in anger, beheads the dogboy. The kern then replaces the dog boy's head backward, but after O'Kelly's complaints turns it back to the right side.
Finally, the kern visits the King of Leinster, whose musicians he declares sound worse than the sledgehammer's thunder in the lowest regions of hell. The King's musicians and men then jump the kern, but each blow they make on the kern inflicts the same wound on themselves. In retaliation, the King has the kern taken out 3 times to the gallows to be hanged, but each time, they find in the kern's place one of the king's confidants at the end of the rope. The following day at sunrise, the kern returns to the king's castle and offers to heal all the men who were killed the previous day, which he revives with a healing herb.
It is only at the end of the tale that the kern is revealed as Manannan, who is offered a dish of crabapples and bonnyclabber at Shane O'Donnellan's house in Meath. As the kern, Manannan repeatedly calls himself sweet one day and bitter or sour the next and describes himself as a stroller or traveler who was born in “Ellach of the kings.” He also gives the following names for himself “Duartaine O'Duartaine,” “Cathal O'Cein,” “Gilla de” and “Gilla Decair” during his travels. O'Donnell's Kern is an example of the folk memory of the Irish gods long after Christianization.[45][46]
The Pursuit of the Gilla Decair and His Horse
As the Gilla Decair, a name also referenced in “O'Donnell's Kern,” Manannan appears in the Fenian story “The Pursuit of the Gilla Decair and his Horse.” In this tale the Fianna encounter the Gilla on Samhain while pursuing the hunt through the forests of Ballachgowan in Munster. The Gilla is described as a gigantic, virile ruffian with black limbs, devilish, misshapen, and ugly, leading a gaunt horse with grey hindquarters and thin legs with an iron chain. Additionally, the Gilla is dressed as a warrior with a convex, black shield hanging from his back, a wide grooved sword at his left thigh, two long javelins at his shoulder, and a limp mantle about him, all reminiscent of Manannan's description in “O'Donnell's Kern.” After greeting Finn with a lay that begins, “May the gods bless thee, Finn, O man of affable discourse..,” the Gilla tells Finn that he is a Fomorian who visits the kings of Christendom to earn a wage, and that his name was given because of the great personal sacrifices he makes on behalf of his retainers. The Gilla then asks Finn if he will hire him as a horseman, to which Finn assents, and then asks to release his horse to graze with those of the Fianna. When Finn grants his permission, the Gilla unbridles his horse to graze with the others and proceeds to mutiliate and kill all the horses of the Fianna.
After seeking the Fianna's counsel, Finn tells Conán mac Morna to mount the Gilla's horse and ride him to death, but though he tries violently to make the horse move, he won't budge. Thirteen other Fianna then mount the horse in an attempt to weigh the horse down as much as the Gilla, but still the horses refuses to budge. The Gilla then tells Finn and the Fianna that were he to serve the rest of his term under Finn's contemptuous frivolity, he would be pitied and mocked, so he tells them that he will be parting, and leaves the Fianna with such a fierce, thundering rapidity that it is compared to the speed of swallow and noise of a March wind over a mountain. As soon as the Gilla's horse loses sight of his master, he speeds off after him with fourteen of the Fianna on his back. Finn and the remaining Fianna then track the Gilla and his horse until they arrive at the sea, where another of the Fianna grabs the horse's tail as it alights over the water with the fifteen men.
Finn then travels to Ben-Adar, where the Tuatha Dé Danann promised the children of the Gael that should they ever need to leave Ireland, they would encounter a ship outfit for them. As the Fianna approach the sea, Finn encounters a pair of men, described as “bulkiest of heroes, most powerful of fighting men, hardiest of champions.” Both men bear shields with lions, leopards, and griffins, “terrible” swords, crimson cloaks with gold fibulae, gold sandals, and gold bands on their heads. They bow to Finn and tell him they are the sons of the King of India, who have the ability to create ships with three fells of the axe and can carry the ships over land and sea. One of the brothers tells Finn that his name is Feradach.
After three days on Feradach's ships without seeing any land or coastline, the Fianna reach a craggy island where they spot the Gilla's tracks. Here it is determined that Dermot, who was fostered by Manannan and Aengus Og, is shamed into vaulting onto the island using the javelins of Manannan, which he possessed. Dermot leaves the Fianna behind and ventures a beautiful forested land, filled with buzzing bees and birds. In the midst of the forested plain, Dermot beholds a massive tree with interlacing branches, beneath which is a well of pure water with an ornamented drinking horn suspended above it. Dermot lusts after the water in the well, pursues it and is confronted with a loud rumbling noise indicating that none should drink of its waters. Dermot drinks the water, and a hostile wizard appears who upbraids Dermot for roaming his forests and drinking his water. Dermot and the wizard battle each other, and the wizard jumps into the well, leaving Dermot behind. Dermot then kills a stag with his javelin, cooks it, and falls asleep. The next day, he finds the wizard, and the two continue their fight for three days with the wizard jumping into his well at the end of each day. On the third day, Dermot follows the wizard into the well and finds upon his emergence, a wide open flowery plain with a regal city. He follows the wizard into the city where he fights the host until he is bleeding, injured, and on the ground. When Dermot awakens, a burly wizard kicks him in the back and explains that he is not there to do Dermot harm but to explain that he is in a dangerous place of enemies. The wizard then takes Dermot on a long journey to a towering fortress, where his wounds are healed with herbs, and he is taken to feasting with the wizard's men.
When Dermot asks where he is and whom he is, the wizard tells him he is in Tir fo Thuinn, that he is the Wizard of Chivalry who is an enemy of the Wizard of the Well, with whom Dermot had fought, and that he was hired o work under Finn for a year. While Dermot is detained with the Wizard of Chivalry, Finn and the Fianna craft rope ladders and also scale the cliffs onto the island. There they encounter a king on horseback who takes them to his kingdom where they enjoy feasting. The Fianna wage war with the king against the King of Greece, who is attempting to invade the island. After winning the war, there is a great celebration with the kings of other lands, and there Finn is reunited with Dermot. Dermot explains that the Gilla's true name is Abartach son of Allchad, and he lives in the Land of Promise.
The daughter of the King of Greece promised herself to Finn prior to the King's defeat, so the Fianna split into groups again, one to pursue Abartach, and the other to Greece. The Fianna retrieve the King of Greece's daughter Taise for Finn, and return to the Land of Promise. Their they reunite with Finn, who has found Abartach. Abartach challenges Finn to determine what debt is owed for the long journeys, adventures, and victories of the Fianna, to which Goll demands payment in the form of fourteen women from the Land of Promise along with Abartach's own wife, who are to ride on his horse, as the Fianna had, back to Ireland. Abartach agrees to the terms, vanishes before the Fianna, and the company returns to Ireland.
Although none of the characters in the story are explicitly called Manannan, the setting of the tale in Tir fo Thuinn, the use of the name Gilla Decair, which is explicitly one of Manannan's bynames in O'Donnell's Kern, and the description of the Gilla's behavior all clearly point to his being the central character on the island. Additionally, the name Abartach is used in the context of Manannan's family as the right hand man of Manannan's son Eachdond Mor. In the Book of Lecan Abartach and Manannan are listed together as two celebrated chiefs of the Tuatha De known for being, respectively, a great musician and a great navigator. Elsewhere Abartach, whose name means dwarf, and who also goes by the name Averty, was a magician of dwarfish size that terrorized part of Ireland. Abartach was only vulnerable in one part of his body, and Fionn mac Cumhaill was able to slay him by sticking his thumb into his mouth to determine the vulnerable spot before spearing him. Abartach was then buried upside down in his grave to prevent his rising from the dead.
O'Neill's Horse Race
There is a folk tale that an English horse racer challenges one of the O'Neills to a horse race. Manannán wants to defend the character of the Irish and knows that none of O'Neill's horses stands a chance against the Englishman's, so he appears in the form of a beggar and challenges the Englishman to a race that he himself runs from Shane's Castle to Dublin. By his enchantments, he wins the race and defends the pride of Ireland and the O'Neill clan. The tale bears some resemblance to the horse race of Macha and also the Roman tradition in which Neptune Equester oversaw horse races.
Giant
As Orbsen Manannan is said to be a giant who fought another giant named Uillin on a spot marked by a standing stone in Moycullen.