Fir Bolg

Fir Bolg, Fir Bholg, Firbolg [Ir., men of Builg]. Mythical early invaders of Ireland, according to the pseudo-history *Lebor Gabála [Book of Invasions], coming many generations after the Nemedians and thirty-seven years before the Tuatha Dé Danann, the race of pre-Christian divinities. Their brief period of power is marked by a secure kingship and the rule of just laws. Descended from Nemed's son Starn, the Fir Bolg suffer oppression in ‘Greece’, where their forced labour includes carrying dirt in leather bags from the valleys to the bare hills; these same bags, refashioned into boats, allow them to escape. The bag motif prompted the fanciful gloss of their name, ‘men of the bags’, after bolg [bag, satchel, sack], which is now rejected. Instead, the Fir Bolg are mythologized from the Builg and Belgae and other P-Celtic settlers in Ireland who preceded the Q-Celtic Goídels. Within the Lebor Gabála they take their name from Bolg/Bolga, an ancestor deity.

The Fir Bolg leader in Greece is Semion, grandson of Starn and son of Stariat. But when the Fir Bolg return to Ireland, 230 years after Starn's departure, at Inber Domnann [Malahide Bay, Co. Dublin] on the feast of Lughnasa, their leader is Dela, whose five sons divided the island. Gann and Sengann take two parts of Munster; Sláine (2) takes Leinster; and Rudraige takes Ulster, founding a dynasty. Unlike their predecessors, the Fir Bolg clear no plains nor form any lakes, as Ireland is by now prepared for agriculture. They are adept at war: an early king, Rinnal [cf. Ir. rinn, spear-point], is the first to employ weapons with points, i.e. iron heads. Curiously, they do not engage the predatory Fomorians, as did the Partholonians, Nemedians, and Tuatha Dé Danann, leading some to speculate that the Fir Bolg and Fomorians were identical, an otherwise insupportable assertion. Although the Fir Bolg prevail for only thirty-seven years, their era is distinguished by the rule of a great and generous king, Eochaid mac Eirc, who establishes justice and provides that all rain will fall as dew and that every year will yield a harvest. His wife is Tailtiu, in whose honour he establishes a famous festival. The invading Tuatha Dé Danann defeat the Fir Bolg at the First Battle of Mag Tuired, near Lough Arrow, Co. Sligo; see CATH MAIGE TUIRED. The beaten Fir Bolg flee to distant parts of the Gaelic world and are later associated with the Scottish coast, Rathlin Island, the province of Connacht, and with the Aran Islands; Dún Aonghusa is named for their chief Angus (3). In Irish and Scottish Gaelic folklore the Fir Bolg are grotesque helots and cave fairies. In Connemara their king is Bola. Literary adapters of the Fir Bolg outside Irish and Scottish Gaelic were often influenced by the earlier interpretation of them as subject workers carrying earth in bags to enrich hilltops. W. B. Yeats describes Forgael as a Fir Bolg in his play The Shadowy Waters (1905).

T. F. O'Rahilly's interpretation of the historical roots of the Fir Bolg invasion in Early Irish History and Mythology (1946), while widely cited, remains controversial. In his vision, the Fir Bolg represent the experience not of one people but of at least three of the P-Celtic invaders of Ireland who preceded the Q-Celtic Goídels: the Érainn, the Domnainn (or Fir Domnann), and Galióin (another name for the Lagin, founders of Leinster). These P-Celts were linguistically related to the Belgae and Brythonic peoples of the Continent and Great Britain, but were eventually absorbed into the rest of the Irish population.

Other frequently cited members of the Fir Bolg include: Delga, builder of Dún Delgan [Dundalk]; Fíngein Fisiocdha, their physician; and Sreng, the champion who severed Nuadu's arm.

Bibliography

See John Carey , ‘Fir Bolg: A Native Etymology Revisited’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 16 (1988), 76–83.