Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/621

Rh with the later history of the Fomori, if their nature be taken into due account. That also was fought on Slemna Maige Itha, which literally means the Smooths or Clear Parts of the Plain of Ith; and one of the plains cleared in Partholon's time was also a Mag nItha; in fact, Mag nItha appears to have been not an uncommon place-name in Ireland, and even Slemna Maige Itha is said to have been that of a spot near Lough Swilly in the county of Donegal. Ith is probably to be regarded as a name of racial significance, but mythology may have had something to do with locating it, and we have indirect evidence that Mag nItha was a name figuring in Irish myths as late as the advent of the Norsemen; for the Eddic poem of the Volospá makes the Anses meet in the Field of Ith in the golden age to come:

'The Anses shall meet on the Field of Ith,

And do judgments under the mighty Tree of the World.'

The Norse poet, it is evident, had not badly learnt his lesson in Irish mythology when he chose as the last meeting-place of the gods the spot where they had been wont to give battle to the blighting monsters and the malevolent giants.

On Welsh ground the contrast between the gods and