Nemed
Nemed [ 'Nʴevʴeð ] ("the saint") is the name of a legendary figure from the Lebor Gabála Érenn ("The Book of the Lands of Ireland") in the Celtic mythology of Ireland .
Etymology and Mythology
Nemetom or nemeton ( old Celtic ) figuratively means “place of worship”. The word is related to the Greek νέμος / némos "forest" and the Latin nemus "(holy) grove" (see also Nemetona ).
Nemed is the son of Agnomain from the land of the Scythians , who wants to sail to Ireland with his four sons, including Iarbonel , and four chiefs to take it. After the Lebor Gabala egg race , Nemed starts with 44 ships in the Caspian Sea and takes a year and a half to reach Ireland. Despite the large volume, only his ship reaches the destination. It is the third of the six Irish invasions after Cessair and Partholon .
In Ireland he wins a few battles against the Fomori , but falls in the last battle at the "Tower of Conan" (according to tradition today Tory Island in the north-west of Ireland). His surviving followers, who cultivate the island, are forced by the Fomors to deliver two-thirds of the harvest and also many of their children as slaves. Most of them then leave the island. Some sources report that a great flood caused the death of the Nemedans, others that a plague was their downfall.
The Firbolg (fourth invasion of Ireland) and the Túatha Dé Danann (fifth and penultimate invasion) are said to have emerged from a group of survivors, who return to Ireland after learning magic in order to recapture it from the Fomori. The legendary heroes Fintan mac Bóchra , who came with Cessair, and Túan mac Cairill , the companion of Partholon, are said to have witnessed all these conquests independently of one another.
See also
literature
- Helmut Birkhan : Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-7001-2609-3 , p.
- Ingeborg Clarus : Celtic Myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter Verlag 1991, ppb edition Patmos Verlag , Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 , p.
- Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 , p.