Marriage:
In ancient Ireland this had several different forms. Among them was not only the usual arrangement negotiated by parents with an eye to advantageous alliance between families, but unions for a limited span, freely entered into by the individuals concerned. While women did not have all the rights of men, on the whole they enjoyed – if freeborn – more liberty than their sex would again, in most of the world, until the twentieth century.
Needfire:
Before the invention of matches, kindling a fire was a laborious and ofttimes precarious task, therefore a serious matter. If a hearthfire went out, it was generally easiest to borrow coals from a neighbour to restart it. Deliberately extinguishing it, in order to begin quite afresh, was an act fraught with religious and magical significance.
Rath of Gráinne and Sloping Trenches:
These are present-day names of ruined works on Tara which were probably burial rather than dwelling sites. People in Niall’s day may already have been telling much the same stories about them that we now hear.
Síd
(later
sídhe
):‘Fairy mounds’ or, in general, underground habitations of supernatural beings, to whom the same word is applied as a name. They appear to have been originally megalithic tombs, although later they included natural hills. When Christianity had prevailed in Ireland, the síd folk became largely identified with the
Tuatha De Danaan, tribes possessing magical powers who had retreated into these fastnesses after suffering defeat in war, but still came forth on occasion for good or ill. It is clear that those were, mainly, the old gods themselves, slightly disguised. To the pagan Irish, the síd folk were presumably ghosts and other such night-wanderers.
Conaire:
The story of this king and his death at the destruction of Da Derga’s hostel appears to be so ancient that it was already a myth among the Irish of Niall’s time.
Samain
(today usually spelled
Samhain
): In the modern calendar, 1 November. It was the most important and awesome of the Celtic festivals. Many beliefs and practices associated with it continued through the Christian era virtually to the present day.
Diarmait
(later
Diarmuid)
and
Gràinne:
A legendary pair of lovers, with whom folklore associates the Rath of Gràinne.
Liger:
The Loire.
14
Bare marble:
The classical Greeks generally painted their statues and buildings. The Romans did likewise for sculpture, but as for buildings, at least in the later part of their history, they were more apt to make the stone itself the decoration, frequently as a facing on a concrete structure.
Portus Namnetum:
Nantes. Condovincum, uphill, was later incorporated.
Shield grip:
Celtic and Nordic shields were not held by loops for the arm but simply grasped by a handle. The Romans added a shoulder strap.
Breccan maqq Nélli:
Breccan son of Niall, ‘Nélli’ being the genitive.
Tír innan Oac:
The Land of Youth, one of several paradises which Celtic mythology located afar in the western ocean.
Milesians:
In Irish legend, the last wave of invaders (prior to the Vikings). A number of tuaths, especially in Con-naught, claimed descent from them, and looked down on ‘Firbolg’ who could not.
Following wind:
It is not clear whether Germanic galleys and Irish currachs (or ‘curraghs’ or ‘coracles’) could tack at all. Roman square-riggers could get no closer than seven points off the wind, and had the advantage of comparatively deep draught, in that era when the keel was not yet designed to help. Sprit-riggers did better. As for currachs, Tim Severin put leeboards on his
Brendan
but admits this may be an anachronism, since there is no evidence for them until well into the Middle Ages. We therefore suppose that they did not exist in our period. Under sail, doing anything but running straight downwind, crews would have used their oars for lateral resistance to keep on a broad reach, which was probably the best they could achieve; without a wind from astern, they struck their sails and rowed. It must have been likewise for Germanic galleys. Certain archaeologists doubt that those even had sails until just before the Viking era, but we think that at least some had primitive rigs in imitation of the Romans.
Christian Scoti:
It appears that there was a significant Christian community in Munster, if not in the rest of Ireland, well before St Patrick.
Wolf:
We know that the bad reputation of this animal is undeserved. However, until recent times most people dreaded and hated it, and there is reason to believe that wolves did occasionally attack humans – especially in hard winters when they could get no other food – as well as
raid livestock. Firearms have changed that; the wolf is quite able to learn a lesson and teach its young.
15
Maze:
Intricate sets of paths had been laid out in northern as well as southern Europe since neolithic times, probably for religious or magical use.
16
Funeral societies:
A Roman legionary was expected to belong to a military funeral association, the dues of which were stopped from his pay. When he died it gave him a proper burial.
Sena:
Implicit are various topographical differences from today’s Île de Sein. It is most unlikely that so low and small an island, constantly battered by waves which storms sometimes dash clear across, would remain for centuries unchanged.
17
Mithraism:
Little is known today about the doctrines of this religion. We present those which are reasonably well attested. Their parallels to Christianity were remarked upon at the time, in writings which survive, and are presumably due to common origins of the ideas in question. As for the rites, there is virtually no record, aside
from some propagandistic Christian references. Out of these we have taken what looks plausible, and added thereto a good deal of conjecture.
18
Planets:
In classical astrology and astronomy, the sun and the moon counted as planets, making – with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn – seven in all.
Carthaginian abhorrence:
It is not certain what the actual attitude of the Carthaginians was towards homosexuality. The Mosaic prohibition suggests that they may have tried to ban it like their fellow Semites the Jews, if only as part of a general reaction against the Graeco-Roman world, but this is perhaps a mistaken idea. However, in any case Ysans who did disapprove – conceivably as a legacy from the Celtic side of their descent – would naturally attribute the same feeling to the founders of their city. As for contemporary Romans, although bisexuality among men, especially in the form of pederasty, had been widespread in the late Republic and the Principate, under the Dominate Christian influence and a generally puritanical mindset eventually drove it underground.
19
‘Tene,
Mithra,’ etc.:
The line is adapted from Kipling’s poem ‘A Song to Mithras’ –’Mithras, also a soldier, keep us true to our vows!’
20
Theatre:
Where there was a curtain in a Classical theatre, it was generally deployed from below rather than above, since the building was roofless. The Ysan theatre is unique in several respects, perhaps most notably in allowing women – preferably respectable women – to perform. Among the Greeks and Romans, they only did so in pornographic shows; otherwise female roles were played by boys.
Feast of Lug:
Known to the Irish of recent times as Lugnasad, it is now fixed at 1 August, although we are again assuming that originally the date varied. We also suppose that the Continental Celts pronounced the name differently from their insular cousins.
21
C.
Valerius Gratillonius:
the name ‘Gaius’ was abbreviated ‘C.’, a relic of times before the Roman alphabet possessed a letter ‘G’.
22
Guilt and expiation:
Some modern Christian apologists have maintained disapprovingly, and some neo-pagans have maintained approvingly, that the ancients had little or no concept of sin, few sexual inhibitions, etc. This is
utter nonsense, as even a superficial study of their writings, onwards from the oldest Mesopotamian and Egyptian texts, will show. For that matter, anthropologists have found that the concept of any noble savages living anywhere in happy innocence and harmony with nature is equally ludicrous.
Dahilis forbidden to Gratillonius:
Present-day medical doctrine allows sexual intercourse, if there are no complications, practically to the end of pregnancy; but this is a very recent idea, as your authors can attest with some ruefulness. In most societies, abstinence has been urged or commanded for expectant mothers during the last several weeks or months. Given the limited capabilities of physicians and rudimentary knowledge of sanitation in the ancient world, this was probably wise then.
Falernian wine:
Renowned in Roman times, it came from an area within Campani, which was a region including modern Capua and Naples. Today’s Campania, in turn, includes ancient Campani in a larger territory.
23
Black Months:
The Breton expression for this time of year may well have ancient origins.
Dàl Riata:
A kingdom in Ulster, or its colony of the same name, across the North Channel on the shore of what is now Scotland.
Mandrake:
Beside its alleged magical properties, mandrake root was anciently used as an emetic, purgative, and narcotic. The
Encyclopaedia Britannica
(11th ed.) observes, ‘… it has fallen into well-earned disrepute.’
Pellitory: Pyrethrum parthenium
, Shakespeare’s ‘feverfew’, related to the chrysanthemum.
Money in circulation:
The economic depression in the Roman Empire, with more and more trade being in kind, inevitably affected other states. Coins, especially those least debased, tended to accumulate in hoards such as later ages have unearthed. However, a society whose institutions were still basically sound would respond to any stimulus given its businesses.
24
Opium:
This was known to the ancients in the form of extract from either the whole plant or the capsule, but apparently used only as an analgesic. The source being Asia Minor, where the opium poppy was native, supply to Western Europe must have cut off as trade declined.
25
Teeth cleansers:
The Romans had versions of toothbrushes and dentifrices.
Toys:
If Gratillonius appears unsentimental about Innilis’s miscarriage, one should remember that attitudes towards such things, and towards infants, were different then. Prior to modern medicine and sanitation, mortality was so high that parents dared not invest much love in a child until it was old enough to have a reasonable chance of living further.
Snow and ice:
These are not especially common in Breton winters, which are oftener rainy, but do occur sometimes.
Caesar:
The Caesarian section gets its name not because Julius was thus born – he wasn’t – but because he re
established the old Royal Law that when a woman died in late pregnancy, a surgical attempt should be made to save her child. The first recorded operation on a living woman occurred in the sixteenth century, and until recent times the fatality rate was so high that it was a last-choice procedure. Nowadays, of course, it is almost routine.
Bay of Aquitania:
Sinus Aquitanicus, the Bay of Biscay.
Wet nurse:
For a newborn infant, it would naturally be preferable to have a woman who had herself given birth very recently.
The Birthday of Mithras:
As we have stated before, this was fixed at 25 December – but in the Julian calendar, which was already out of step with astronomical time. Hence the date of the full moon following was earlier than a modern ephemeris for the fourth century, using the Gregorian calendar, indicates. Throughout the writing of this book, we have tried to be as accurate as possible about all verifiable details.
These equivalents are for the most part only approximations. For further details, see the Notes.
Abona:
The River Avon in Somerset.
Abonae:
Sea Mills.
Alba:
Scotic name for what is now Scotland, sometimes including England.
Aquae Sulis:
Bath.
Armorica:
Brittany.
Audiarna:
Audierne (hypothetical).
Augusta Trevororum:
Trier.
Bay of Aquitania (Sinus Aquitanicus):
Bay of Biscay.
Boand’s River:
The River Boyne.
Borcovicium:
Housesteads, at Hadrian’s Wall.
Britannia:
The Roman part of Britain, essentially England and Wales.
Burdigala:
Bordeaux.
Campani:
A district of Italy including modern Capua and Naples.
Cape Rack:
Pointe du Raz (hypothetical).
Clón Tarui:
Clontarf, now a district of Dublin.
Condacht:
Connaught.
Condate Redonum.
Rennes.
Dacia:
Romania.
Dàl Riata: A
kingdom in Ulster, or its colony on the Argyll coast.
Deva:
Chester.
Dubris:
Dover.
Eboracum:
York.
Emain Macha:
Seat of the principal Ulster kings, near present-day Armagh.
Ériu:
Ireland.
Falernia:
An area in Campani, noted for wine.
Fanum Martis:
Corseul.
Gallia:
Gaul, including France and parts of Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland.
Gallia Lugdunensis: A
province occupying most of northern and part of central France.
Gallia Narbonensis: A
province in southwestern France.
Garomagus: A
town near present-day Douarnenez (hypothetical).
Gesocribate:
Brest (?).
Gesoriacum:
Boulogne.