Lug Lámfhota

Lug Lámfhota; Lugh, Luga; Lámfada, Lámfhada, Lámhfhada [OIr. lug, light, brightness; lámhfhada, long-armed, long-handed]. May also bear the patronymics mac Céin, mac Ethlenn, Maicnia, and the epithets Samildánach and lldánach. Celebrated chief of the Tuatha Dé Danann and central hero of the Mythological Cycle of early Irish literature; one of the three great heroes of Irish tradition, along with Fionn mac Cumhaill and Cúchulainn, whose supernatural father he is. Lug's usual agnomen, Lámfhada [long-armed], testifies to an ability to hurl a weapon a long distance or to use a sling, not to the actual length of his arm. His usual sobriquet, Samildánach [possessing many arts, crafts, trades], also Ildánach, suggests he may also have been a fili or seer. Another patronymic was Maicnia [lad-warrior]. Although Lug may originally have been a god of the sun or of light, he was still thought to be historical as late as the 19th century. The ancient Luigni of what is now Counties Meath and Sligo claimed descent from him. Much of Lug's story is told in the 11th-century text (based on earlier materials) Cath Maige Tuired [The (Second) Battle of Mag Tuired], in which he kills Balor, coincidentally his grandfather. A close counterpart and possible double of the Welsh Lleu Llaw Gyffes [W, light of the sure/steady hand], Lug appears to share a divine origin with Fionn [Ir., fair] and Cúchulainn, both of whom may be his doubles.

Lug appears to be identical with the Gaulish Mercury, modern commentators agree, for two reasons: (a) Julius Caesar's (1st cent. BC) description of Mercury ‘inventor of all the arts’ translates Lug's sobriquet Samildánach; (b) the name Lugos/Lugus for Mercury is implicit in several place-names, e.g. Lug(u)-dunum, which survive as Leiden, Lyon, Liegnitz, etc. At the Roman colony of what is now Lyon, Emperor Augustus inaugurated a festival on the first day of August, an anticipation of the later Irish August festival of Lughnasa. Aspects of Lug's persona suggest even deeper rooting in the Indo-European imagination. Lámfhada [long-armed], for example, echoes the epithet of the Indian god Savitar, ‘of the wide hand’. Lug's use of magic links him with both the Indian Varuna and the Norse Odin. Commentators disagree whether the cult arrived early or late in Ireland, but by the time of Christ he was the patron of a harvest festival at Tailtiu [Teltown, Co. Meath].

The circumstances of Lug's conception and birth imply that he was destined for an extraordinary career. His grandfather Balor, a Fomorian, had been told he would be slain by his grandson and so tried to prevent his daughter Eithne (1) from knowing men, but Cian (sometimes Cethern (2)), son of Dian Cécht the healing god, seduced the girl with the help of the druidess Birog. Triplets were conceived, but Lug's two siblings were either drowned at birth or turned into seals. Some commentators see this as evidence of Lug's triplism. Sometimes Lug is also attributed a sister, Ébliu (1), wife of Fintan mac Bóchra. Grandfather Balor was not spiteful, however, calling out to the nimble baby picking up an apple that he had long hands, thus giving him his name. Along with his divine lineage, Lug could boast divine fosterage from the sea-god Manannán mac Lir, who none the less chided the boy for his blindness and stubbornness. Variant texts name Goibniu the smith-god and Eochaid (3) as foster-father and Tailtiu or Duach as foster-mother.

Always portrayed as youthful, handsome, and athletic, Lug's dramatic character becomes most sharply focused in Cath Maige Tuired; he comes to the aid of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who fear that their maimed king Nuadu may not be able to resist the invading Fomorians. When Lug first approaches the citadel at Tara, he is refused for having no art. In successive knockings at the gate Lug identifies himself as a wright or builder, a smith, champion, harper, warrior, poet, historian, magician, physician (or leech), cup-bearer, and brazier (or craftsman in metal), but is told that the Tuatha Dé Danann already have one. Then he asks if they have someone who could perform all these skills, Samildánach, and when Tara's denizens admit they do not, he is allowed to enter. Upon his arrival, Lug dazzles the court with two more feats by throwing a huge flagstone over a high wall and by playing a harp. Nuadu yields his throne to Lug, who successfully leads the Tuatha Dé Danann against the Fomorians in the central action of Cath Maige Tuired; Lug's piercing of Balor's magical, lethal eye determines their victory. In the same text Lug is credited with inventing fidchell, the archaic board-game described as a game of kings; and he is also thought to have instituted horse-racing. Lug assists his spiritual son Cúchulainn in Táin Bó Cuailnge [Cattle Raid of Cooley], is revealed as the phantom in Baile In Scáil [The Phantom's Frenzy], and sometimes appears as the consort of Sovereignty in oral tradition. He reigned for forty years.

As befits a champion whose agnomen, Lámfhada, speaks of an ability to wield power over distance, Lug's favoured weapon is his spear, about which there are differing stories. According to Oidheadh Chlainne Tuireann [The Tragic Story of the Children of Tuireann], Lug sent the sons of Tuireann (earlier Tuirill), Brian, Iuchair, and Iucharba, on seemingly impossible tasks as recompense, éric, for killing his father, Cian. One of these tasks was to bring back the spear of Assal, Gáe Assail, then in Persia. In another text, the druid Esras provided Lug with the spear. In any case, it is usually thought of as one of the four treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

According to a verse in the Dindshenchas, Lug had four wives. The two better-known are: Buí, linked to Howth and the Cailleach Bhéirre; her sister Nás, linked tenuously to Naas, Co. Kildare; the remaining two, Echtach (3) and Énglic, are cipherous names. An unnamed wife, perhaps a fifth or sixth, was unfaithful to Lug with Cermait, the son of the Dagda; Lug's vengeful killing of Cermait brought, in return, the revenge of Cermait's sons (see below). Lug was enamoured of Deichtine, mother of Cúchulainn. Strangely, considering that many early Irish families cited Lug in their pedigrees, he is not credited with either sons or daughters, except for Fionn's harper, Cnú Deireóil, who claimed to be Lug's son (perhaps facetiously). Lug's constant companion was his lapdog Failinis.

In the most widely known story, Lug is killed by Mac Cuill, Mac Cécht, and Mac Gréine, the divine sons of Cermait, in revenge for the killing of their father. This takes places near the hill of Uisnech; when the sons attack, Lug flees to nearby Loch Lugborta, where he drowns and is buried in a cairn on the shore. Other place-name traditions link him to Goll mac Morna, representing either that Lug kills him or that he is killed by him. Still other stories have Lug buried at Brug na Bóinne [Newgrange] or Luglochta Loga [the Garden of Lug], which was the fortress of Forgall Monach, Emer's father. Allusions to the name Lug survive in dozens of place-names, perhaps also in Lughbhadh, Co. Louth.

Lug's prominence in early Celtic culture was reflected and adapted countless times in subsequent generations. Early Christian commentators coordinated Lug, the victor over the Fomorians, with the archangel Michael, the conqueror of Lucifer; thus there are echoes of Lug as far afield as Mont St Michel in northern France, the Michaelmas festival (29 September), and the popularity of the name Michael in Ireland. A continuing allusion to Lug persists in Lugaid, the seventh most popular name in early Ireland. Lug's persona contributes to the legends of several saints, including the twenty-eight named Mo Lua. There are also several discernible links between Lug and the Arthurian hero Lancelot, even though many of the most ambitious claims for the Celtic origin of Arthurian characters are now dismissed. Unlike Cúchulainn and Fionn mac Cumhaill, however, Lug has not sparked extensive recreations in English and other non-Celtic languages. Earlier commentators suggested his name was present in lugh-chorpán [little Lugh-body], an etymology for leprechaun. The name Lug is applied to a radio delivering Dionysian messages in Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa (1990). See also MORVAH.

Bibliography

See Anon. , ‘Le Dieu irlandais Lug et le thème gaulois Lugu-’, Revue Celtique, 10 (1889), 238–43;
John Carey , ‘Nodons in Britain and Ireland’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 40 (1984), 1–22;
Roger S. Loomis , ‘The Descent of Lancelot from Lug’, Bulletin bibliographique de la Société Internationale Arthurienne, 3 (1951), 67–73;
Máire Mac Neill , The Feast of Lughnasa (Oxford, 1962), 1–11;
Pádraig Ó Riain , ‘Traces of Lug in Early Irish Hagiographical Tradition’, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 36 (1977), 138–56;
Joseph Loth , ‘Le Dieu Lug, la terre mère et les Lugoves’, Revue Archéologique, 2 (1914), 205–30. Folk motifs: A141; A151.1.1.