Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/468

 452 The European Sky-God.

O'Donovan in The Genealogies, Tribes, and Customs of Hy-FiacJirach makes clear two noteworthy facts with regard to the very locaHty in which Diannuid's tree is said to have grown. On the one hand, the O'Dubhda (O'Dowd), king of this district, was in historical times inaugurated by means of a rod {yirgd) held over his head by Mac Firbis, his ollamh or chief poet.^ On the other hand, the name Diarmuid occurs repeatedly in the pedigree of O'Dubhda and in the collateral branches of the royal family.'^ The original Diarmuid is often styled ' Dermat of the Bright Face ' ^ — a name that must be set beside that of ' Grian the Bright-faced ' * as well suited to a personage with solar powers. The meaning of the word Diarmidd is a matter of conjecture.^ But we shall not be

•^J. O'Donovan The Genealogies, Tribes, and Ciistovts of Hy-Fiachrach Dublin 1844 p. 440 ff. Inauguration by means of a rod was common throughout Ireland ; the rod was usually a straight white wand, free from knots in the wood, and deemed symbolic of rectitude, candour, and equity (O'Donovan ib, p. 425 ff.). My suggestion is that the rod was originally in all cases a branch of the bile or sacred tree beneath which the king was inaugurated.

"^ Id. ib. Genealogical Table opposite p. 476. According to Highland tradition, the Clann Campbell, represented by the Duke of Argyll, descend from Diarmuid, and their crest is a boar's head in memory of his death (P. W. Joyce Old Celtic Romances p. 439) : cp. J. F. Campbell Popular Tales of the West Highlands Edinburgh i860 i. xxxiii. f., iii. 45, 50 ff., 82 ff.

' P. W. Joyce op. cit. p. 438. J. Bonwick Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions p. 194 states that ' one bard sings of " Diarmuid with a fiery face.'" A folk-tale in J. Curtin Myths and Folk-Lore of Irelatid p. 344 calls him the 'Son of the Monarch of Light.'


 * Supra p. 449.

^Prof. Rhys Celtic Folklore ii. 691 suggests connexion with the Welsh name Bodermud or Bodermyd analysed into Bod-Dermyd. Bruno Giiterbock is reported in the Revue celtique xviii. 108 to take Diarmait for * dia- armit, i.e. * dia-airmitin, 'honour of God.' A. MacBain An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language Inverness 1896 p. 358 says: ' Zimmer explains the name as Dia-ermit, "God-reverencing," from dia and ertnit : The Dolmens of Ireland London 1897 iii. 898 cp. the Lapp deity Tiermes,
 * are-ment-, "on-minding," root ment, as in dcarmad, q.v.' W. C. Borlase