Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/444

 428 The European Sky -God.

that of the Celtic god Camulos} and is connected by Prof. Rhys with the Old Saxon himil and the German Himmel, ' sky.'^ This connexion might be supported by the relation of Nuada Necht to Nuada the sky-god.^ Again, Finn's mother Muirne was daughter of Tadg and grand-daughter of Nuada.* In The Festivities at the House of Conan of Ceann-Sleibhe Finn states that his first name was Glas- dioghuin and his second name Giolla-an-chuasain^ Mr. N. O'Kearney in a note ad lac. explains that Glasdioghidn means ' the invulnerable Glas.' But Glas itself was a Celtic colour-word applied to oaks, etc.^ so that Finn's first name may fairly be rendered ' the invulnerable Green,' a sufficiently striking parallel to the Green Knight of Arthurian fame. Finn's second name denotes ' the boy, or wight, of the excavation.' ' The Fenian leader,' says Mr. O'Kearney, ' was so called in his youth, because he had been bred up by his foster-mother, Boghmuin, in the hollow of an oak, in order to avoid the vengeance of the clans of Moirne, and other enemies of his father.' An Irish folk-tale'^ tells how Cumhal's mother reared young

^D'Arbois Les Celtes p. 52 f., Dottin Manuel de FAntiquiti celtique pp. 85, 227.

2 Rh^s Hibbert Lectures p. 38 ff.

^ Folk-lore xvii. 33, 39. Baiscne, son of Nuada Necht, bears a name con- nected with the Gaelic boisg, ' gleam ' (see J. F. Campbell Popular Tales of the West Highlands Edinburgh 1862 iii. 60).

Muirne was daughter of Tadg and grand-daughter of Nuada the sky-god (S. H. O'Grady Silva Gadelica ii. 245 in The Colloquy with the Attcients, Lady Gregory Gods and Fighting Men p. 159), or of Nuada Necht (S. H. O'Grady Silva Gadelica ii. 519 in Extract x. iv. b from K. 5), or of Nuadu mac Achi (D'Arbois Uipop^e celtique p. 379 ff. in the Cause de la Bataille de Cnucha, cp. Folk-lore Record iv. 19 ' Muirrean, daughter of the powerful druid, Tadg of the luminous side ' in P. Kennedy Legendary Fictions of the Lrish Celts London 1866 p. 2i6 ' The Fight of Castle Knoc').
 * J. O'Donovan in Transactions of the Ossianic Society for i8j6 iv. 284.

^ Folk-lore xvn. 310 n. 5.
 * Transactions of the Ossiattic Society for 18^4 Dublin 1855 ii. 129.

'J. Curtin Myths and Folk- Lore of Lr eland London 1890 p. 204 ff.