I planned to take it slow for my first entry, because the others this month are all quite big characters (See 'Coming Up' at the end!). So, I selected Saint Fáelán, or 'Childhood Lugh', and then immediately regretted my decision. He was deeper than I estimated - Whoops!

I also committed to making my newsletters very short - well, I'm already drafting issue #2 and finding it quite impossible. Sorry for misleading you. I'll still aim to keep the issues focused on cross-identification of Saints and Gods, and leave the deep-dives on the Gods per-se for another format, at least until I can afford to upgrade the newsletter and add a tagging system for readers to filter their subscriptions by. In the meantime, if there is interest I could publish a separate 'Dossier' containing deeper detail on popular Saint/Deities, maybe.

I'm also going to try and include some fringe detail I hadn't initially planned to, but I think it'll help a lot:

1. I'd like to try and include some suggestions about names and places that may connect to the Saint/God.
2. If there's any good reading material I'll try to include it in a Bibliography.
3. I'll include a little segment dealing with general patterns in Celtic Comparativism that might help you explore the way that I do.

If you've just found or been forwarded this, then join in; this is the first issue, we're just getting started.

The Child who would be Lugh

Lugh Lámhfhada has a great conception and birth myth passed down orally and collected in many forms in the last few centuries, having apparently never been collected on Manuscript prior to that. Only one version I've ever heard details how he came to earn his name, and it feels true to the Welsh form of the God, Lleu Llaw Gyffes, when it features him earning his name from his Maternal ancestor. Kris Hughes recently retold this version beautifully and she was kind enough to share the source of the earned-name mytheme - it's included in the book "The People of the Sea" by David Thompson, pp.193-198. Thank you Kris!

Well, that may be how he earned his name Lugh Lamhfhada. But what was he called before that? And can we trace more details of his childhood, if we know?

Fáelán - Little Wolf

Opinions differ on how many Saints Fáelán there are, between 2 and 4. There are also at least two Kings. For brevity I will cover one king, and one saint. They are Saint Fáelán son of Caintigern (DIB entry), and Fáelán mac Colmáin Máir (DIB entry), a king of Leinster who interacts with several god-saints.

Fáelán mac Colmáin

Beginning with the latter, Fáelán mac Colmáin is fostered to Saint Coemgen of Glendalough, AKA Cían, father of Lugh (whose Saintly identity will get treatment ~3rd June). He also meets other Saint-Deities Colmán and Berach (yes, they'll get treatment too). We get details from Berach and Coemgen's lives about the boyhood care he receives. But here are a few very Lugh-like details for you to enjoy:

• His predecessor Mael-umai defeated the 'Uí Ercáin', similarly to Nuada who defeats king Eochaid mac Eirc.
• Mother is Fedelm, an epithet of Boann (Lugh's mother) used in several Ulster Cycle stories.
• Berach (also named Fintan) defends him from his maternal family - it is Lugh's maternal family who would want him dead if they knew of him.
• Marries two women with royal-themed names, named 'Uasal' and 'Sárnat' (both meaning "Noble" (1)) - Lugh marries Buaidh ('Victory') and Nas ('Assembly/Fair')

Saint Fáelán of Strath Fillan

Onto our Saint Fáelán of Strath Fillan and Cillfhaelin (both named for him). Originally of Ireland, he is born to his mother Caintigern (2) and his father Feriach. He was prophesied to be born with a stone in his mouth and be mute (3). For some reason his father is appalled, and throws him in a lake at birth. A year later, he is rescued by Bishop Íbar from under the lake and fostered by him and then Fintan Munnu. Succeeding Fintan as abbot, he absconds instead to Scotland to join his uncle Comgan (cf. Coemgen - Cían) in Glen Dochart (c.f.: the similarly-named Glendalough).

This Fáelán's birth and fosterage myth should sound very familiar to those who know their Lugh myths; his birth is prophesied that he will kill his Grandfather, so Balor throws Lugh into the sea, he's rescued and raised by Tailtiú and then Cian himself.

Fáelán of Straithfhillain also has a dog that slays a great monstrous boar; Lugh has an obscure connection to a hound (a treasure won by the Sons of Tuireann), his son Cúchulainn is spiritually a hound, and his likely Ulster-cycle incarnation Celtchar has a tragic association with his own prize hound.

This Fáelán is associated with a glowing arm (4), an unusual arm-bone-relic, a neat Crozier (5), and is entered in the Martyrology of Óengus as 'Fáelán with that victory, that splendid Mute'. Fáelán is not a saint associated in his deeds with battle or victory, but recall Lugh's marriage to an abstract-concept deity, Buaidh, which means 'Victory' - an attribute he shares with another King-and-Law Deity with a similar childhood story and later career, the Greek Zeus.

Other Comparisons

The theme of a god who must be squirreled away from a dangerous father and returns for revenge is a very common one. However, the overall thrust of Lugh's particular story where he has support from his Biological Father is shared by Lleu, Lugh's Welsh parallel.

We see hints of Lugh's adulthood in Fáelán's story, though not much. This limits the scope of international comparisons; Zeus' birth myth is similar of course, as expected, but then so is that of Dionysus and he is (mostly) not Lugh's parallel. It appears that Fáeláns lose clarity as they age, perhaps because they are a childhood identity - Saint Fáelán for example spends most of his life still in the company of his parents. Stay tuned for more examples of Childhood and Adult Lugh among the Saints, and we'll have additional lensed views on the same God to compare.

If you have any family named "Fallon", you might be descended from Lugh. If you live somewhere ending in "Fillan" or "-illan", it might be associated with him.

You can also see a possible link in names like "Kineely", from "Cinnfhaelad", though I believe this to be a distinct and more abstract/primordial deity.

Footnotes:

1. If you are feeling chaotic, you could perhaps literally read Sárnat as 'Great Arse'. Don't, though.
2. You might wonder if Cantigern is Lugh's biological mother Eithne, or his beloved Foster-mother Tailtiú. For various reasons, most of which I can't include here, I find it more sensible to read her as the latter, and to understand his killer-father motif as a garbling of the original.
3. Muteness or Stammering are details mentioned for Fáelán that might seem incongruent for a god who is later shown to be fluently poetic, but this is indeed a recurring childhood motif that appears to have a deeper esoteric meaning for this God, which we'll explore another day.
4. A glowing arm is a detail that he shares with another significant Saintly version of Lugh - it's also a recurring trait.
5. Lugh is most associated with a Spear and Armour (c.f. Zeus' Aegis). Croziers often seem to take the place of weapons, while Bells or Chalices replace Cauldrons or musical instruments. Either can also simply appear as a Christian flourish and may mean nothing. Generally I merely note them, their presence is too generic to be used for anything but a great Book/Newsletter title.

Bibliography

• Plummer, Charles (1922) Bethada Naem Éirinn, available on Archive.org (paged to Life of Berach where Fáelán figures more)
• Thompson, David (1954) The People of the Sea, pp.193-198 (a version of Lugh's conception and childhood myth featuring his 'naming' by Balor)

Coming Up!

As mentioned, this is a month of heavy-hitting saints already. I have 3 others for January that I would like to cover before I deliver something useful on Brigid for Imbolg:

• 15th Jan: Íte of Killeady, none other than The Morríogan herself
• 20th Jan: Féichín of Fore, god of plague and divine punishment
• 31st Jan: Máedóc/Aedan of Ferns, one of our two male deities of Fire

Patterns in Celtic Comparativism, #1

Perhaps I'll try to make this part of the format; a note on things that will be recurring patterns, maybe themed on today's Saint.

Today let's point out something that'll be very commonplace: Big Gods become Many Saints. Sometimes, this is in order to split up a character who's too big, who might compete with Christ himself. Sometimes, it's in order to reconcile different geographical loci of worship with a Saint whose lifetime might never reasonably take them that far.

And, sometimes, it's because the re-incarnation of Gods is a very clear pattern in Celtic mythology; once you see it, you won't be able to miss it. Like our cousin cultures in Asia, the Celts (or the Irish, at any rate) had a view that gods could live and die and be reborn again, often from different parent-gods and often in uncanny replicas of their original birth.

And that is as true for Lugh as for the rest. Indeed, we'll see that his reincarnations may be more than personal but Cosmic in scope, book-ending the ages with his various appearances.

Share & Help Out

If you enjoyed this introduction to The Gods and their Croziers, do me a favour in kind: pass it on! I'm excited to share what I'm learning, and the process of drafting these emails is helping push me to dig deeper, too. A forwarded email, or a shared link to the archives, would be a welcome assist. Thanks!

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