Part One: The Druids' Power Over the Land
In connection with the description of the turbulent events surrounding the arrival of the sons of Mile in Ireland, The Book of Captures leads - which in itself is very rare and valuable for our research - the text of the spell uttered by Philid Amorgen.
[339 - See M.-L. Sjoestedt, op. cit, 17. This author sees in this incantation the expression of "the pride of a sorcerer who, having triumphed with his art over the enemy, boasts of his talents and lists his capabilities …". Such an interpretation would be permissible only if we could confidently separate the religious fact from its metaphysical content. However, this is not the case, and it cannot be done with any Irish mythological or epic text. However, the name "sorcerer" in relation to the filid is already inaccurate.] After landing on the island: "Sea of many fish!
Abundant firmament!
Clouds of fish!
Fish under the waves
In streams like birds -
The bubbling sea!
Promotional video:
White city.
Hundreds of salmon
Giant Whales!
Harbor song -
Clouds of fish
The Many-Fish Sea”[340 -“From the Book of Captures”. Per. S. V. Shkunaeva.]
Irish literature, even more than these texts, brings to us technical explanations or details of the use of spells, among which the most interesting aspect for us is the very names of magical actions, spells or divinations. One of the most effective such means, apparently, was "glam dicinn" - "an impromptu curse," which, for example, is threatened by Philid Kairpre before the decisive battle: with my power I will take away their fortitude in battle. " [341 - "Battle of the Mag Tuired", § 115. - Per. S. V. Shkunaeva.]
Glam Dicinn is an impromptu curse
This spell, even if improvised, nevertheless required considerable preparation. This is how the Book of Ballymot describes this procedure, [342 - Folio 284a, 24-51.] In which one can observe a curious mixture of Christianity and paganism: “First, the fast was observed in the land of the king, for whose sake the poem was composed; then a council of thirty laity, thirty bishops and thirty filids was to compose a satire … The poet himself had to set off with six companions bearing the titles of the six ranks of filids, whose names are as follows: fochloc, mac fuirmid, doss, kana (sana), kli (cli), anrad (anrad), allam (allam). This last one, allam, leading the others, at sunset climbed to the top of the hill on the border of the seven regions. There, each of the dignitaries, gazed at the ollam,and the ollam looked at the land of the king he wanted to laugh at. All of them turned their backs to the hawthorn bush that was supposed to grow on the top of the hill. When the wind blew from the north, each of them, holding a sling stone and a hawthorn branch in his hand, sang over these objects a satire stanza against the king. Ollam sang first, and the others followed in turn. After that, everyone put their stone and their branch on the roots of the hawthorn bush. If they were wrong, they were swallowed up by the land of the hill; if, on the contrary, the king was wrong, then the hill swallowed him up, along with his wife and son, his horse, his weapons, equipment and with his dog. The curse of the poppy furmid fell on the dog; the curse of fohlak - on equipment; curse of dosa - on weapons; the kana's curse is on his wife; the Kli curse the son; curse of anrada - on the country;the curse of the ollam is on the king himself."
"Imbas forosnab" - "illuminating science (palm)" and "Dichetal do Chennaib" - "spell with the tips of the bones."
Another archaic way of divination appears in Cormac's Glossary under the title imbas forosnai, that is, according to the Irish compiler of the glossary, "illuminating science." In fact, the word - "bas" here denotes the palm of the hand, as it becomes clear from the description of the casting of the spell given by the scribe himself. [343 - Cm. Thurneysen, "ZCP", 19, 163 and Loth, "Rev. celt. ", 37, 311-314.]
“Filid chews on a piece of meat from a red pig, dog or cat, which he then puts on a flat stone behind the door; he sacrifices it to the gods on the altar, accompanying this procedure with the chanting of incantations; after that he invokes his idols; if the next day he does not find them (?), then he casts a spell on his palms and calls his idols to him again so that his sleep is not disturbed, and he keeps his palms on his cheeks until he falls asleep. Then he is guarded so that no one interferes and does not disturb him before everything is fully revealed to him, that is, until the end of nine days or two or three, depending on what was deemed necessary during the sacrifice. [344 - Stokes, "Three Ir. G.”, 25. To a certain extent, one could compare with this the monument from Mavilli (Code d'Or) (E. Thevenot,“Latomus”, 14, 75 ff., Pi. II).]
"Dichetal do chaime cnaime", or "the spell with the tips of the bones" - as its name sounds in full, - was, apparently, relatively simple in execution, although its description is not too clear: "When Philid sees a person in the distance, going to him, or simply appearing, he immediately composes a stanza about him with the tips of his bones, that is, with his fingers, or in his mind, without preparation, while he simultaneously sings and performs actions.”[345 - Ancient Laws, I, 44.]
Saint Patrick forbade converted Philids to use this spell. The scribe, probably because of his scrupulousness, and undoubtedly because of his knowledge, adds: "And (ideo" imbas "dicitur, therefore called" irnbas "), that is, his two palms - one palm in front, the other - behind, on the cheeks. And Patrick canceled or prohibited this rite, as well as "teinm laegda" - "illumination of the song", and decreed that anyone who resorts to him will not gain either heaven or earth, for he will lose baptism. As for the "dichetal do chennaib" - "the spell with the tips of the bones", he still allowed them to perform it according to the rules: their art, and the reason was that this ritual does not require sacrifice to the demon, but is only a ritual, during the time during which the poet receives revelation by direct contact with his fingertips.
Teinm Laegda - Song Illumination
Teinm laegda, or song illumination, leaves us even more confused. It was with the help of the "song enlightenment" that the king-hero Finn Mac Cumall, according to the same "Glossary of Cormac", managed to find the killer of his jester Lomna. To do this, "Finn put his thumb in his mouth and sang a song of inspiration." We know of several options. It was necessary either to lower the rods on an object about which clarification was required, or, like Finn, put a thumb in his mouth, touching a wisdom tooth with it, bite it, compose an impromptu quatrain and, in the end, make a sacrifice to the gods. [346 - Stokes, op. cit, 34 and RIA Dictionnary, I / I, 118.] It was also the song of illumination that helped Finn realize that his life had come to an end: “One day Finn left Alma and ended up in a place called 'adharca iuchbadh' in Offaly;he went to the spring on the hill and drank a sip from it; he put his thumb under the "tooth of knowledge" and sang the "song of illumination"; and then it was revealed to him that the end of his time and his life had come, and he sang this quatrain …”[347 - Silva Gadelica, I, 91.]
Song Insight has been used in public riddles and in completely secular games. When Lugaid, a blind filid, was brought a small skull thrown ashore by the sea, and asked which creature it belonged to, he ordered: "Put the tips of the twigs on top," only small remains, - he said, - for Brekan was drowned with the whole family in this abyss. [348 - Stokes, Three Ir. G, 14.]
There were other spells, "dlui fulla" - "dlui fulla", for example, carried out with the help of a straw, which was enough to throw in the face of the intended person to make her mad. The already mentioned treatise "Correspondence of Names" (§ 183), resorting to a play on words, explains this action with the help of the king's name: "Nuada Fullon: Fullon - this was the name of the druid who raised him, and he was the first druid to cast a spell on a straw to make a person insane. That is why the Irish call this rite dlui fulla."
Such actions were often carried out with malicious intent: “Dreco, daughter of Kalemael, son of Cartan, son of Connight, was a druidess and a rhymer (Banliccerd). It was she who prepared the poisoned liquid for the twenty-four sons of Fergus with the red side; they all died, and the place where they rested was called "Nem tenn" - "strong poison." [349 - Dinshenchas de Rennes, Rev. Celt, XVI, 34.]
The spell could kill a person by itself - such is, for example, "briamon smetraige" - "briamon smethraige", imposed by one filid when someone opposed his will: “He (filid) can rub a person's earlobe with two fingers, and the one on whom this action is performed dies. And this is natural: as the ear is located outside of a person, so the person over whom such an action is performed turns out to be outside of humanity …”[350 - Sanas Chormaic. P. 22.]
What, finally, was the "knot of the Druids" about which we know from the mysterious mention in the narration of "The Conversation of the Two Sages" from the "Book of Lismore":
“I remember three hills, they are not subject to age, and there is no flaw in them; - a gray deer with three young antlers ran there from slope to slope; - I remember three churches that belonged to a good mentor. There was no bell ringing in them, but they were surrounded by a knot of druids. " [351 - Windisch, Ir. Texte, IV, 27.]
Continuation: Celtic Horde - "God's Judgment"