Baylor of the Evil Eye and the Beginnings of Ireland and the Gaelic Race
Part I
If you’re familiar with Ireland’s history, you can skip this back story of the Irish, their history and heritage—and about ancient pagan Ireland and Baylor of the Evil Eye. This myth was carved in Irish hearts, partly in the language Ogham and partly in Celtic-Gaelic. Ogham is an alphabet of numbers of straight lines carved on the sides of the edge angle of wood. The letters have tree names. The language is primarily from pre-Christian times and was used until the seventh century.
Once, Ireland was called Scotia and Scotland was called Alban. Primitive men came to Ireland six thousand years before Christ. Compared to Ireland, all other nations are new. The start of English history the seventh century. The Irish history dates from before the Christian era.
Irish history is entangled with legend, myth and facts. But the myths are not merely fanciful tales. Actual events were committed to memory by the Irish poets and historians who revered tradition. Each small detail that impacted their race was learn by rote. It was recited repeatedly through the centuries.
In pagan Ireland, the historian and the poet were the most esteemed persons in the land next to the king. The druid, also highly revered, was their priest. That was because of the importance placed on the protection of the historical record of Ireland.
A File, an amalgamation poet and historian, would seldom to stray from the facts, even though he might give color to unessential details as we will see in Baylor of the Evil Eye. It was the law that if a file was found falsifying his work, he would be disgraced.
A poet would never alter the bare facts of his story. It is only the fanciful narrative that seems strange and fantastic to us. But a poet’s fancy was used to provide color, excitement, and artistry. However brightly he would embellish a story, he would never falsify history.
Long ago, the Celtic people were known as the Milesian Race. But they were descended in part from two other races that graced this land a thousand years before Christ. Those two races living there when the sons of Milesius of Spain conquered Ireland, were the Firbolgs and the Tuatha de Dananan, children of the goddess Dana. The Firbolgs were the first people to inhabit Ireland and were Greek slaves who had escaped from passing ships. Baylor of the Evil Eye lived across the water and was the leader of the race called Formorians
So remembering all that (or not), I will re-tell the tale of Baylor of the Evil Eye.
Baylor. Part One
Did I say that Baylor was killed by his grandson, Lugh, Master of All the Arts, who was of the Tuatha de Dananan? You can skip ahead if you already know about Baylor’s position in Ireland’s history. But then, you may not know how Baylor was killed. This is how it happened.
The children of Dana, the Tuatha de Dananan or de Dananan were called by many other names. Mostly, they were called people of the Sidhe, elves, or fairies, or the good people for they had magical powers. Their king was Nuada. His Champion was Breas. All kings had a champion to fight for him, because kings were picked for beauty and wisdom, not because they were ripped.
This race of people came over to Ireland looking for land. The land was enormous, so it was years before they realized the land was otherwise occupied. One day they discovered the Firbolgs had gotten there ahead of them.
The Firbolgs had a Champion named Streng. They also had a king named, Eochaid who ruled a legendary place called Tara—no, not the southern mansion in Gone with the Wind. This Tara rested on the hills in Meath and was the seat of power for all the high kings of Ireland. There were five roads winding up the hills to Tara. It was a hugely important place so we have the saying, all roads led to Tara.
Now, that’s the Firbolgs, and the Tuatha de Dananan. As I said, remembering the Firbolg king’s name is no big deal because he won’t last long. But remember Nuada the other king.
The third and last race of people was called the Formor. These Formors were a vicious lot and lived by thievery. They were a horrible looking lot as well. Some had one hand, some one foot, some only one eye. This was because they were always fighting and chopping each other up. They lived across the sea, and Baylor of the Evil Eye, their leader—it’s about time, right?
So now there you have the cast of charactors. The Firbolgs who were here at the start, the Formors who came from across the water, and the interlopers, the magical fairies, Tuatha de Dananan.
So now, at long last, the story of Baylor begins. And high time you say.
The Firbolgs planted himself in the center of a lush field and said, “Get off my land.”
The Tuatha de Dananan said, “Nope—or at least that’s what they said in this cleaned up version.”—and if you can imagine the nerve of these people, they asked for half of Ireland instead, which seemed reasonable to them, after all the Firbolgs had the whole area to themselves at the time.
The Tuatha de Dananan said, “You have a lot of land here. Give up one half peacefully, or we will wage a war and take it all.”
The deal didn’t sound so reasonable to the Firbolgs—not a little bit, after all, they had all the land already, and they had thousands of warriors. They were not inclined to share. They refused without a second thought.
The story of the battle fought over this land is well over fourteen hundred years old. It’s the story of two great races, and how the Tuatha de Dananan overthrew the Firbolgs.
The Firbolgs knew only too well the de Dananan were superior fighters—they were after all fairies. And even though the Firbolgs had greater numbers they knew they were probably going to lose the battle unless they could out-last the enemy. They did everything they could to delay the inevitable. They succeeded in postponing the war for over a hundred days.
When both armies were seemingly ready, the Firbolgs simply refused to plunge into battle. When they were asked when they would be ready, they could not say exactly. They said they must be given time to sharpen their swords, arrange spears according to length, largest to the smallest, and from sharpest to dullest. They simply had to shine up armor, polish helmets, groom horses, fix meals, make wine, gather wood, and ready all the wickerwork shields.
So, they were given time to get prepared while the de Dananan waited.
Now the Firbolgs noticed that the de Dananan had a light spear they didn’t have, and they needed to make some of those. They were given time to make light spears.
Now the de Dananan said, “Are you ready?”
“Well, no, in fact we’re not,” the Firbolgs said. “It’s has not escaped our notice we have heavy spears and you don’t.” The Firbolgs were solicitous. So, the de Dananan took the time to make heavy spears, so they were more evenly matched.
Finally, after over one hundred days of delay, false starts, excuses and tricks, the fight started—or nearly started.
The Dananan, being fair minded, noticed that the Firbolgs had many more warriors, and demanded to fight mano o mano. Man-for-man. The laws of battle-justice forced the issue. They had been too smart for their own good.
The four-day battle was won easily by the Tuatha de Dananan, but the Firbolgs pretended not to notice that they had lost.
The Firbolgs said, “Why don’t we settle this contest once and for all.” as if they were still in the fight. They said they wished to have only three hundred men per side.
The de Dananan simply wanted to end it. The Tuatha de Dananan could not believe the sheer gall of the Firbolgs. Yet, the fairy were fair and noble. They knew they would win in the end, so they agreed.
There was a great battle, finally. The Tuatha de Dananan won, of course and killed the three hundred Firbolgs and the king as well. I did mention that the Firbolg king wouldn’t last. The de Dananan halted their celebration to help cover his body with stones.
The de Dananan admired men who would not quit and were brave in defeat. So, they gave the Firbolgs a quarter of the Island where they fought.
Anyway, the death of the Firbolg king put the Champion Streng in charge of the Firbolgs. He did not become the high king of Tara, since the Firbolgs had just lost that position in the battle. But Streng was made a minor king and spokesman.
The de Dananans were reasonable. They said, “You know we came over here in peace and you wouldn’t have it. But we are not going to kick you out of Ireland. Streng, you can have one of the four other Provinces—Ulster, Munster, Leinster, or Connaught. Streng chose Connaught. The Tuatha de Dananan took Meath with the lovely Tara.
King Nuada of the de Dananan lost his crown because he lost his hand. The Champion Streng sliced Nuada’s hand off. The law of the de Dananan mandated that no blemished man could be king. Fairy people are known for beauty and perfect bodies, so a blemished ruler was against the law—a law retained afterward in all of Ireland, by the way.
You may recall that the champion of the de Dananan was Breas. His father was a Formorian chief—that band of savages living by dishonesty. Anyway, as next in line, he took Nuada’s place on the throne as high king of Ireland.
Meanwhile Nuada, his druid, and his artificer Creidne, were working in secret to have a silver hand with moving fingers made.
Breas ruled for seven years and indulged his kin. The Formors, headed up by Baylor of the Evil Eye from beyond the sea, placed a heavy tax on the Tuatha de Dananan and Breas paid it out of the treasury. In turn, he simply placed a heavy tax on the Irish people. The people hated this tribute and hated him because he was mean and cheap. Any king without a generous heart and a giving hand, would have been hated in Ireland.
It was an unhappy day for Ireland when Breas the Champion of the de Dananan became king, as we shall see in part II, Lugh of the Long Hand.
Part II
To be continued
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