Re: [tied] Original Celtic Irish texts?

I'm not scholarly in this area but I am interested and found this
post enlightening. I'm familiar with the tribe of course. Standard
references like the EB still hold to "People of the Goddess Danu" as
do many writers including the late Robert Graves. Could you post a
handy citation for me? Thanks.

Paul

--- In cybalist@..., "Christopher Gwinn" <sonno3@...> wrote:
>
> >aren't the danaan the people of the godess Danu?
>
> If you are talking about the Tuatha De Danann ("Tribe of Gods of
Danu" or
> "Tribe of the Goddess Danu") of Irish legend (and not the Greek
Danaan), yes
> they are believed to be named for a goddess *Danu.
>
> That having been said, it is important to note that there is
actually no
> figure from Irish legend known as *Danu (though she very well might
have
> existed, but her tales were lost) - this name is a modern scholarly
back
> formation from Danann of a possible nominative fem. sg. (Danann is
a
> genitive form).
>
> It should also be noted that in the earliest texts, we only find
the gods
> simply named as Tuatha De ("Tribe of Gods" or "Tribe of the
Goddess") - the
> addition of Danann came later - and it appears to have been a gloss
to
> explain who the "goddess" was that the tribe belonged to (it is
unclear as
> to whether "De" was originally a genitive plural "of gods" or
genitive fem.
> sing "of the goddess" - but at some point it was interpreted by the
clerics
> recording the stories as "of the goddess").
>
> - Chris Gwinn
>
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