Creation of the Celtic people of Ireland

Super Bowl tonight, I am not interested.  My son asks me "Mama, is homework fun?"  I reply "Honey, homework is very fun."  I'm happy to be taking two of  Professor Sexson's classes:  Studies in Shakespeare and Mythologies.  I am making the most of my time before the Professor's retirement.  I told my son, "life for me is so good right now."  And it is.  My days are filled with reading.  I am taking three Lit classes and Library studies this semester.  I am going to do my big report on Queen Elizabeth I.  This research paper coincides with Shakespeare's life, they lived during the same "Golden Age."  Mythology also goes well with Shakespeare because Shakespeare drew his inspiration from Ovid.  All of the connections remind me of the Celtic knot, which also reminds me that I need to post my creation myth, mine is the story of the Celts.  *It goes like this...



Once upon a time, there was no time and there were no gods and no man walked the surface of the earth.  But there was the sea and where the sea met the land, a mare was born.  She was white and made of sea foam--her name was Eiocha. 

 On the land, near where the land met the sea, a strong oak tree grew.  On the oak, a plant grew whose seeds were formed from the foam of the sea.  To sustain her, Eiocha ate the seeds.  Inside her, the seeds were transformed.  Eiocha grew heavy with child and she gave birth to the god, Curnunnos.  So great was her pain form childbirth that she ripped bark form the oak and hurled it into the sea.  The bark was transformed and became the giants of the deep. 

Curnunnos was lonely so he coupled with Eiocha, their union formed three gods, and the goddess, Epona.  Eiocha tired of the land and wanted to return to the sea, as she was formed of sea foam.  In the sea, she was transformed into the goddess Tethra. 

The gods and goddess on land were lonely for they had no one to command and no-one to worship them.  So they took the bark from the oak tree and made the first man and woman.  Cernunnos also made other animals from the oak tree: the deer, the hound, the hare and the snake.  He was the god of the animals.  He then commanded the oak tree to spread and grow to become a forest home for his children.  

Epona, the goddess, also made animals, but only a mare and a stallion.  Epona did this in memory of her mother Eiocha, who was no more. 

 The giants from the deep sea saw that the gods and goddess were happy at their creations and they became jealous.  But Tethra, who was once Eiocha, saw the jealousy and warned her children.  The gods were then prepared for the day the giants would come. 

The gods battled with the giants.  The giants were driven back into the sea.  Epona, the goddess was not present for the battle.  She had taken  refuge in Cernunnos's forest.  She had also taken  the man and the woman.  The two that Epona saved would become a mighty people. 

The gods and goddess returned to the forest to their home by the mighty oak tree.  The oak was still strong and sturdy and it still had sacred berries made of white sea foam.

 

*The Celtic people did not have one single creation myth.  Their history was passed down orally and it is their belief that the beginning of time was when the first Celts settled in Ireland.