Túan mac Cairill

Túan mac Cairill [ tuan mak 'karʴiLʴ ] is the oldest inhabitant of the island in the Celtic mythology of Ireland . He is mentioned in the Lebor Gabála Érenn ("Book of the Landing of Ireland") as Partholon's brother , with whom he comes to the island. As with this one, his family tree is said to go back to Noah . The story Scél Tuain meic Chairill (“The Metamorphoses of Túan mac Cairill”) from the historical cycle is in Lebor na hUidre (“The book of the dark-skinned [cow]”) from the 11th century and in three other manuscripts from the 14th century. -16. Century handed down.

Túan mac Cairill is the only one to survive the epidemic that kills all companions of Partholon and himself. Through constant “transmigration of souls” from one animal body to another, he experiences all the events that come over Ireland and is thus a contemporary from the settlement up to the time of the saints.

Scél Tuain meic Chairill

In the story Scél Tuain meic Chairill ("The story of Túans, the son of Cairills"), Finnian, the abbot of the Irish monastery Mag Bile in Ulster around 500 AD, tries to convert an ancient pagan. He tells him the story of his 2000-year life: he and his brother Partholon landed in Ireland shortly after the Flood. His name was then Túan Mac Starn Mac Sera and he helped defeat the Fomori and reclaim the island. Except for him, however, they all perished from an epidemic. As an old man he witnessed the arrival of Nemed , then fell asleep and woke up again as a deer. Next he became a boar and lived the time of the Firbolg . In his next incarnation as an eagle, he saw the Túatha Dé Danann go ashore. Having become a salmon, he experienced the landing of the Milesians and the expulsion of the Túatha Dé Danann into the elven hills ( sidhe ). A fisherman caught the salmon and brought it to the King of Ulster, his wife ate it and in her womb Túan became human again and was born as the son of King Cairill for the sixth time. The abbot Finnian now presents him with baptism as a seventh rebirth.

This metamorphosis into various animal and human forms and the usually associated wandering through time is also represented in the saga of Fintan mac Bóchra and similarly in De chophur in da muccida (“From the metamorphosis [?] Of the two swineherd”) . The idea of ​​a Celtic doctrine of reincarnation or the migration of souls, derived from this by some Celtologists , has not remained uncontroversial with others.

See also

• List of Celtic gods and legendary figures
• Myths and legends from Ireland
• Celtic otherworld

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 .
• Ingeborg Clarus : Celtic Myths. Man and his otherworld. Walter Verlag 1991, ppb edition Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf, 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-491-69109-5 .
• Bernhard Maier : The legend book of the Welsh Celts. The four branches of the Mabinogi . dtv, supra April 1999; ISBN 3423126280 .
• Bernhard Maier: Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 870.
2. ^ ^{A b} H. d'Arbois de Jubainville: Cours de littérature celtique. 12 vol., Paris 1884–1902, II. Vol., P. 45 ff.
3. ↑ ^{a b} F. Lautenbach (trans.): The Celtic cauldron. Change and rebirth in the mythology of the Celts: Irish, Alsian, Arthurian texts. S: 33 ff.
4. ^ Ingeborg Clarus: Celtic myths. Man and his otherworld. P. 72 f.
5. ↑ Helmut Birkhan: Celts. Attempt at a complete representation of their culture. P. 914 f.