Lebor Gabála Érenn (which means "The Book of Ireland's Taking" in English) is a collection of poems and stories written in the Irish language. It was created to tell the history of Ireland and the Irish people from the beginning of the world until the Middle Ages. There are several versions of the book, with the oldest one written by an unknown person in the 11th century. This version combined stories that had been shared for many years before. The Lebor Gabála describes how Ireland was settled by six groups of people: the people of Cessair, the people of Partholón, the people of Nemed, the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Milesians. The first four groups were either destroyed or left the island. The fifth group represents Ireland's ancient gods, and the sixth group represents the Irish people, known as the Gaels.
The Lebor Gabála was very important and was considered a standard history by poets and scholars until the 19th century. Today, experts believe it is mostly a myth rather than a true history. The book seems to be based on medieval Christian stories that were not real, but it also includes parts of Ireland's older pagan beliefs. Scholars think the writers wanted to create a history for Ireland that could compare to the histories of Rome or Israel and that fit with Christian teachings. The Lebor Gabála became one of the most well-known and influential works in early Irish literature. Mark Williams said it was written to connect the timeline of the Christian world with the early history of Ireland.
The Lebor Gabála is usually called The Book of Invasions or The Book of Conquests in English. In Modern Irish, it is known as Leabhar Gabhála Éireann or Leabhar Gabhála na hÉireann.
Origin and purpose
The writers of Lebor Gabála Érenn aimed to create an important written history of the Irish, similar to the history of the Israelites in the Old Testament of the Bible. This history was meant to place Ireland within the timeline of Christian world history, connecting the Irish to events from the Old Testament and comparing them to the Israelites. The ancestors of the Irish were described as people who were enslaved, exiled, wandered in the wilderness, or saw the "Promised Land" from a distance. The writers also included stories about the origins of the Irish that existed before Christianity and tried to match them with medieval Christian stories.
The Lebor Gabála Érenn was influenced by four major Christian works. However, pre-Christian elements were not completely removed. For example, one poem in Lebor Gabála Érenn describes how goddesses from the Tuatha Dé Danann married men from the Gaeil when they "invaded" and "colonized" Ireland. The pattern of repeated invasions in Lebor Gabála Érenn is similar to the account by Timagenes of Alexandria, as recorded by the 4th-century historian Ammianus Marcellinus. Timagenes described how the ancestors of the Gauls were driven from their homeland in eastern Europe due to wars and floods.
Many pieces of Ireland’s mythological history are found in writings from the 7th and 8th centuries. In his Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History (1861), Eugene O'Curry, a professor of Irish history and archaeology, explained different types of historical stories found in ancient Irish manuscripts. He described the Tochomladh, which refers to the arrival of groups such as the Parthalon, Nemedh, Firbolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann, and Milesians in Ireland. These stories were likely the basis for the early parts of the Books of Invasions.
R. A. Stewart Macalister believed that Lebor Gabála Érenn combined two separate works: one was a history of the Gaedil modeled after the history of the Israelites in the Old Testament, and the other was an account of earlier settlements in Ireland (which Macalister considered less historically accurate). The second work was inserted into the middle of the first. Macalister suggested that the Bible-like text may have been a Latin scholarly work called Liber Occupationis Hiberniae ("The Book of the Taking of Ireland").
The earliest surviving account of Irish origins is found in the Historia Brittonum ("History of the Britons"), written in Wales in the 9th century. This story likely came from a lost Irish source. It describes how Ireland was settled by three groups from the Iberian Peninsula. The first group, the people of Partholón, died from a plague. The second group, the people of Nemed, eventually returned to Iberia. The third group was led by three sons of a warrior from Hispania, who sailed to Ireland in thirty ships. They saw a glass tower in the sea and tried to capture it, but most of their ships sank. Only one ship survived, and its passengers became the ancestors of all the Irish.
When Lebor Gabála Érenn was first written in the 11th century, the three groups of settlers had grown to six. Joseph Lennon noted that these six groups may have been the result of efforts to explain many oral stories about Irish origins. It is also suggested that the six groups were meant to match the "Six Ages of the World."
These stories were expanded by Irish historian-poets throughout the 9th century. In the 10th and 11th centuries, long historical poems were written and later included in Lebor Gabála Érenn. Most of the poems used in the 11th–12th century version of Lebor Gabála Érenn were written by four poets.
It was in the late 11th century that an unnamed scholar collected these poems and others, fitting them into a detailed prose structure. Parts of this structure were original, while others were taken from older sources that no longer exist (such as the tochomlaidh mentioned by O'Curry). The scholar paraphrased and expanded the poems. This work became the earliest version of Lebor Gabála Érenn, written in Middle Irish, a form of Irish Gaelic used between 900 and 1200.
Versions
Within about 100 years after it was created, many copies and changes of Lebor Gabála existed. These copies included as many as 136 poems. It is not accurate to think of Lebor Gabála as one single story. No two versions are exactly the same, even though some parts are similar. There are five main versions of the text. These versions are found in over a dozen medieval manuscripts:
The table below shows the surviving manuscripts that contain different versions of Lebor Gabála. Most of the abbreviations used in the table come from R. A. S. Macalister's important edition of the work (see references for more details):
Lebor Gabála was translated into French in 1884. The first full English translation was completed by R. A. Stewart Macalister between 1937 and 1942. This translation included Macalister's notes, an introduction, and a collection of comparisons between different versions of the text. Macalister's work combined the many versions of this already complex text into one version.
Contents
The collection is divided into ten chapters:
This chapter retells the Christian story of creation, the fall of humans, and early world history. The author uses the book of Genesis and other less well-known works, such as the Syriac Cave of Treasures, as well as four Christian texts: City of God by St. Augustine, Histories by Orosius, Chronicle by Eusebius, and Etymologies by Isidore of Seville.
This part includes a family tree based on the Historia Brittonum and the 6th-century Frankish Table of Nations, which itself draws from Tacitus’s Germania from the 1st century. It describes how major European peoples descended from three brothers.
This chapter explains that all humans are descended from Adam through Noah’s sons. It states that Japheth, one of Noah’s sons, is the ancestor of Europeans. Japheth’s son, Magog, is the ancestor of the Gaels and Scythians. Fénius Farsaid, a prince of Scythia, is described as one of 72 leaders who built the Tower of Babel. His son, Nel, marries Scota, daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh named Cingris. Their son, Goídel Glas, creates the Goidelic (Gaelic) language from the 72 languages that arose after the Tower of Babel. Goídel’s descendants, the Goidels (Gaels), leave Egypt with the Israelites during the Exodus and settle in Scythia. After 440 years of travel, they reach the Maeotian marshes, then sail to Crete and Sicily, and eventually conquer Iberia. There, Goídel’s descendant, Breogán, builds a city called Brigantia and a tower from which his son Íth sees Ireland. Brigantia was the Roman name for Corunna in Galicia, and Breogán’s tower may be based on the Tower of Hercules, rebuilt by the Romans in Corunna.
According to the Lebor Gabála, the first people to arrive in Ireland are led by Cessair, daughter of Bith, son of Noah. They are told to flee to the western edge of the world to escape a coming flood. They travel in three ships, but two are lost at sea. They land in Ireland at Dún na mBárc on Bantry Bay, 40 days before the flood. Only Cessair, 49 other women, and three men—Fintán mac Bóchra, Bith, and Ladra—survive. The women are divided evenly among the men, with each man taking one woman as his wife: Fintán takes Cessair, Bith takes Barrfhind, and Ladra takes Alba. Soon after, Bith and Ladra die, and Ladra is the first man buried in Ireland. When the flood comes, Fintán is the only survivor. He becomes a salmon, then an eagle and a hawk, living for 5,500 years before returning as a man to recount Ireland’s history.
In an earlier version of the story, the first woman in Ireland is Banba. Banba, Fódla, and Ériu were land goddesses whose husbands were Mac Cuill (son of hazel), Mac Cecht (son of the plough), and Mac Gréine (son of the Sun). It is likely that Cessair, the three men, and their wives replaced these figures in a Christian version of the story. Fintán may also be linked to the Salmon of Knowledge, which gains all knowledge after eating nine hazelnuts that fell into a well. The women who travel with Cessair have names that represent ancestors of different peoples, such as Alba (ancestor of the Britons), Espa (Spanish), German (Germans), Gothiam (Goths), and Traige (Thracians). Their arrival is seen as a small representation of the world’s population in Ireland. Other names in the group echo those of ancient Irish goddesses.
Ireland is uninhabited for 300 years until a second group arrives, led by Partholón, who is descended from Noah through Magog. They travel from Gothia, Anatolia, Greece, Sicily, and Iberia to Ireland. They include Partholón’s wife, Delgnat, their four chieftain sons, and others. When they arrive, the land has one open plain, three lakes, and nine rivers. They clear four more plains and seven lakes emerge from the ground. Notable figures introduce cattle farming, ploughing, cooking, brewing, and divide the island into four parts. They battle and defeat the Fomorians, led by Cichol Gricenchos. Eventually, Partholón and his people die of plague in one week. Only one man, Tuan mac Cairill, survives. Like Fintán, he lives for centuries in different forms to recount Irish history. This chapter also includes the story of Delgnat committing adultery with a servant.
Partholón’s name may come from Bartholomaeus (Bartholomew), a name found in Christian writings by Saint Jerome and Isidore. The Fomorians are seen as harmful forces of nature, representing chaos, darkness, death, blight, and drought.
Ireland is uninhabited for 30 years until a third group arrives, led by Nemed, also descended from Noah through Magog. They set out from the Caspian Sea in 44 ships, but only Nemed’s ship reaches Ireland after a year and a half of sailing. On board are Nemed’s wife, his four chieftain sons, and others. During their time in Ireland, the Nemedians clear twelve plains, build two royal forts, and four lakes emerge from the ground. They win four battles against the Fomorians.
After Nemed and many others die of plague, the Nemedians are oppressed by the Fomorians, Conand and Morc. Each year during Samhain, they must give two-thirds of their children, wheat, and milk to the Fomorians. This tribute may reflect ancient winter sacrifices to powers of darkness and blight. Eventually, the Nemedians rise against the Fomorians and attack the Tower of Conand with 60,000 warriors (30,000 on land and 30,000 at sea), defeating Conand. Morc then attacks, and most Nemedians are killed or swept away by the sea. Only one ship with 30 men escapes. Some go north, some go to Britain and become ancestors of all Britons, and some go south to Greece.
Those who went to Greece were enslaved by the Greeks and made to carry bags of soil and clay. After 230 years, they return to Ireland and are called the
Modern analysis
For many centuries, the Lebor Gabála was considered a true and trustworthy record of Ireland's history. As recently as the 17th century, Geoffrey Keating used it while writing his history of Ireland, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, and it was also used by the authors of the Annals of the Four Masters. In recent times, however, the work has been examined more carefully by scholars. One modern scholar described it as part of "the tradition of historical fabrication or pseudohistory," while another called it "generally spurious" and noted its many "fictions," though also acknowledging that it includes some popular traditions. R. A. Stewart Macalister, an Irish archaeologist who translated the work into English, stated: "There is not a single element of genuine historical detail, in the strict sense of the word, anywhere in the whole compilation."
The story of the Gaels arriving in Ireland is thought to have been made up by Christian writers who compared the Gaels to the Israelites. The idea that the Gaels had Scythian origins seems to come from the similar-sounding names Scoti and Scythae. Other medieval writers also made similar claims about other groups, such as Isidore, who linked the Goths and Getae to the Scythians because of their shared names. The claim that the Gaels had Iberian origins may be based on three things: the similar names Iberia and Hibernia, Isidore calling Iberia the "motherland of the races," and Orosius placing Ireland "between Iberia and Britain." The idea that the Gaels lived in the Maeotian marshes may have come from the Book of the History of the Franks, and their travels to Crete and Sicily may have been inspired by the story of Aeneas. Other parts of the Lebor Gabála are taken from pagan Gaelic myths, such as the divine Tuath Dé and the demonic Fomorians, who are similar to the Æsir and Vanir of Norse mythology. It is suggested that the Nemedians' battle with the Fomorians reflects an ancient conflict between these supernatural groups, and that the Fir Bolg are the human version of the Fomorians.
Most scholars believe the Lebor Gabála is mainly a myth, not a history. However, some have argued that it may loosely reflect real events. In the 1940s, T. F. O'Rahilly proposed a model of Irish prehistory based on his study of the Lebor Gabála and early Irish language. He suggested four waves of Celtic migrations or invasions: the Cruthin (c. 700–500 BC), the Érainn or Builg (c. 500 BC), the Laigin, Domnainn, and Gálioin (c. 300 BC), and the Gaels (c. 100 BC). He claimed the first three groups spoke Brittonic languages. O'Rahilly believed some of the invasions described in the Lebor Gabála were based on these groups, but others were made up by the writers. He also argued that many of Ireland's "pre-Gaelic" peoples continued to live in the region for centuries after 100 BC. O'Rahilly's theory has been challenged by historians and archaeologists and is no longer widely accepted.
In The White Goddess (1948), British poet and mythologist Robert Graves argued that myths brought to Ireland long before writing was introduced were passed down accurately by word of mouth before being written in the Christian Era. He disagreed with Macalister, with whom he corresponded, and claimed some traditions in the Lebor Gabála "seemed archaeologically plausible." However, The White Goddess itself has been criticized by archaeologists and historians.