Source: MacNeill, Máire. The Festival of Lughnasa,
Parts I and II. Dublin: Comhairle Bhéaloideas
Éireann, 1982, pp. 166–168.
Manannán mac Lir (Manandan, Monanaun,
Mananan, Oirbsiu) Irish god. An oceanic
divinity, Manannán is described as the son of
(“mac”)
LIR, an even older although obscure god
of the sea. He never lived on land but made his
home somewhere in the ocean, on an ISLAND
variously called MAG MELL (“plain of honey”),
TÍR TAIRNGIRI (“land of promise”), and EMAIN
ABLACH (“island of apples”), the last of which has
been occasionally connected with the Arthurian
OTHERWORLD of AVALON.
A master of SHAPE-SHIFTING, Manannán
was like the Greek Proteus (from whom we get
our word protean, many-formed). He could
grant this power to those he cherished and who
cherished him, which made him a popular deity
among BARDS and those who practiced DIVINA-
TION. Manannán’s magical powers were many.
He traveled across the sea, faster than the wind
could blow, in a magical self-propelling boat
made of copper, drawn by a HORSE named
Enbharr (“splendid mane” or “water-foam”)
whose HAIR was the froth of the waves. He
could make a dozen men seem like an army; he
could throw a handful of chips into the brine
and make them look like an armada. He had a
magic cloak that, when he shook it out, caused
forgetfulness.
He was not originally one of the TUATHA DÉ
DANANN, the most important deities of ancient
Ireland, but by the 10th century he had been
absorbed into their number. It was he, according
to some tales, who gave the Tuatha Dé the idea
of living under hills instead of leaving Ireland
altogether, and for that he was accepted among
them. In return he gave the tribe of DANU three
gifts: the DRUID’S FOG or cloak of concealment;
the feast of GOIBNIU where old age was kept at
bay; and finally his own magical PIGS that could
be killed each day, eaten each evening, and yet
come alive again every morning.
Manannán sometimes appears in literature as
a human figure, a sailor who never was lost at sea
because of his uncanny celestial navigational
skills; he is thus described in the works of the
Irish scribe Cormac. In other stories from the
oral tradition, he was a merchant mariner who,
tired of Ireland, moved his base of operations to
Scotland, where he appears in many folktales.
Manannán gives his name to the Isle of Man,
where the sea’s presence is always felt and where
his grave can still be seen. Oral traditions about
Manannán were scanty in other Celtic regions,
but the long survival of the Manx tongue meant
that traditions about the sea god survived on Man
into relatively recent times. Until the 1830s, when
regular boat service began, there was little regular
contact between the Isle of Man and other lands,
nor did the residents generally speak English. But
the Manx language, a branch of Gaelic that was
related but not identical to the tongues of Ireland
and Wales, did not long survive the intensified
contact with other lands, declining rapidly in the
19th century; the last native speaker of Manx died
in the latter part of the 20th century.
Manannán was, according to legend, the first
king of the island named for him; he lived in a
castle on the top of Mount Barrule, where he is
buried, although other stories claim his burial
mound can be seen on the seashore beneath Peel
Castle. A vantage point looking out to sea was
called Manannán’s Chair, from which he was
said to keep watch. Manx fishermen claimed
that, as they mended their nets, Manannán came
to them, walking along the seashore followed by
a curious being who seemed to have no head or
torso but three legs—the symbol of the ever-
moving sea and also the crest of the Isle of Man.
Manannán was associated with several god-
desses and
FAIRY women. Most prominent in lit-
erature was his daughter or wife FAND (called
Fairyland’s “pearl of beauty”), the only threat to
the idealized marriage of the hero CÚCHULAINN
and his paragon of womanhood, EMER.
Manannán was also associated with the SUN god-
dess ÁINE, who left his watery bed to rise each
morning; but other legends call her his daughter
Manannán mac Lir 311