Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/630

614 helps us to understand, for the great encounter between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomori was expected beforehand: of the time and place of it they were well aware, so that preparations of all kinds were made by Lug and the nobles of the Tuatha Dé Danann for a long while in advance. But this feature of the story is not always reproduced by those in whose hands myths are wrought into historical narrative, as it might be found hard of explanation. From the mythic point of view it is simple enough; for once you admit that it refers to a struggle between the forces of nature which takes place annually, no mystery remains or room for prophecy, except in assigning the days of its commencement. In the Irish version this is fixed on the last day of October or the first day of November, and there is a certain amount of fitness in the Irish dates: at midsummer the Tuatha Dé Danann have a great victory over the Fir Bolg, but later, at the beginning of winter, they enter on a conflict with the Fomori, which lasts an indefinite length of time, and which is fatal to many of their chiefs, until at last Lug rushes into the battle and slays Balor of the Evil Eye, which ought to be towards the beginning of summer. The battle of Fomorian Moytura was not exclusively fought, it ought to have been explained, with ordinary weapons of war: thus, for example, the druid of the Tuatha Dé Danann engaged to bring down in the faces of the Fomori three showers of fire, and the Dagda undertook to work as many such wonders as all his colleagues put together. But to bring into relief the similarities between the Celtic and Norse myths, it is