MYTHOLOGICAL TALES | FAIRY TALES | FOLKTALES

MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE | ULSTER CYCLE | FENIAN CYCLE | CYCLE OF KINGS

LEBOR GABALA ERENN

Tuan: The Coming of Nemed” © 1992, Jim Fitzpatrick.

he Lebor Gabala Erenn, "The Book of Invasions of Ireland", is the core text of the mythological cycle of Irish literature, and the earliest known written history of Ireland. Early Irish Christian monks, fearful of losing the ancient history of Ireland, took pains to write down as many of the oral traditions of the druids who preceded them. The version we have today, which is taken from the Book of Leinster and the Book of Fermoy, tells the most ancient history of Ireland all the way to the period immediately before the Flood of Noah, as described in Genesis 6-9.

In the Lebor, the earliest invaders, named the "Cessair", came to Ireland in an attempt to escape the Flood, but all but one was taken by the Flood: a man named Tuan MacCarill, who escaped the Flood by hiding in a cave on a high mountain. His survival was not accidental, however, as God had predestined him to live on as a witness to all of the major invasions, from the Cessair to the Milesians. Moreover, during his long life, Tuan underwent several transfomations, first into a stag, then into a boar, and then into an eagle, kept alive by God to witness the history of Ireland.

The Lebor is generally divided into 8 sections, covering biblical history, the history of the Gaels, and each of the six major invasions, as follows:

Biblical History
Gaedel (Gaelic) History
The Cessair Invasion
The Partholonian Invasion
The Nemedian Invasion
The Fir Bolg Invasion
The Tuatha de Danann Invasion
The Milesian Invasion

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