Old Europe (Vinca) language and culture in early layers of Serbian and Irish culture

I can HEAR AND UTTER words.

Yes. It is interesting that neither Celtic languages nor have words derived from werdo.

This is interesting material but I am beginning to think it might be better suited to the Linguistics & Etymology forum.
Any objections to moving the thread there?

Uí Fáeláin sept of the Uí Dúnlainge branch of the Laigin. This sept had their royal seat at Naas in the eastern part of the Liffey plain.

What is interesting is that Lugh (Lugus) was also connected with wolves (hounds). In Irish "Cú" can mean hound or a wolf or a wolf hound (cross between wolves and dogs).

The iconography of Gaulish Mercury includes birds, particularly ravens and the cock, now the emblem of France; horses; the tree of life; dogs or wolves; a pair of snakes (cf Hermes's Caduceus); mistletoe; shoes (one of the dedications to the Lugoves was made by a shoemakers' guild; Lugus's Welsh counterpart Lleu (or Llew) Llaw Gyffes is described in the Welsh Triads as one of the "three golden shoemakers of the island of Britain"); and bags of money. He is often armed with a spear. He is frequently accompanied by his consort Rosmerta ("great provider"), who bears the ritual drink with which kingship was conferred (in Roman mythology). Unlike the Roman Mercury, who is always a youth, Gaulish Mercury is occasionally also represented as an old man.

There may be further triplism associated with his birth. His father in the folktale is one of a triad of brothers, Mac Cinnfhaelaidh, Gavida and Mac Samthainn, and his father in the medieval texts, Cian, is often mentioned together with his brothers Cú and Cethen.[4] Two characters called Lugaid, a popular medieval Irish name thought to derive from Lugh, have three fathers: Lugaid Riab nDerg (Lugaid of the Red Stripes) was the son of the three Findemna or fair triplets,[5] and Lugaid mac Con Roí was also known as mac Trí Con, "son of three hounds".[6] In Ireland's other great "sequestered maiden" story, the tragedy of Deirdre, the king's intended is carried off by three brothers, who are hunters with hounds.[7] The canine imagery continues with Cian's brother Cú ("hound"), another Lugaid, Lugaid Mac Con (son of a hound), and Lugh's son Cúchulainn ("Culann's Hound").[8] A fourth Lugaid was Lugaid Loígde, a legendary King of Tara and ancestor of (or inspiration for) Lugaid Mac Con.

A gigantic black war dog five feet tall at the shoulder, the Hound of Lugh is a fearsome sight on the battlefield. While the dog is a ferocious combatant, its primary use to Scions comes from its superlative senses. The hound can unerringly track prey across forest, desert, tundra or any other environment. The Creature is courageous to a fault, and surprisingly intelligent for an animal.

Fáil Inis was a hound-whelp owned by Lugh Lámhfhada of the Tuatha Dé Danann in the Mythological Cycle of Irish literature. The hound was invincible in battle, caught every wild beast it encountered, and could magically change any running water it bathed in into wine.[1] It was one of the prizes exacted from the children of Tuireann (Brían, Iuchar and Iucharba) as reparation for the slaying of Lugh's father Cian.[2]
By the same name, or nearly so (Failinis or Ṡalinnis), this hound of Lugh also occurs in recensions of a certain medieval ballad from the Fenian cycle. The ballad relates how the wonder-dog is brought to Ireland by a threesome (also from "Iruaid"). A variant telling of this threesome also occurs in The Colloquy of the Elders, though the dog's name there is Fer Mac.

Aided Chloinne Tuireann

The hound's name Failinis appears in the full narrative version of The Fate of the Children of Tuireann (see Brian (mythology), Tuireann), which only survives in manuscripts from early 18th century and later. However, neither dog nor its name is by any means a concoction of late tradition. The Lebor Gabála Éirenn (Book of Invasions) gives a brief account of Lugh's demands, according to which he obtained "the whelp of the royal smith of Ioruath" (Irish: Cuilen rīg goband na Hiruaidhe) which was "a hound by night and a sheep by day" and whatever pool of water touched its hide (Irish: croccenn) turned to wine.[9] The hound's name is not specifically given in the Book of Invasions.

12th-century ballad

However, the name of Lugh's dog Failinis is indeed recorded in Medieval manuscripts. It occurs in a certain "ballad" (Irish: dúan) starting with the line "They came a band of three…" (Irish: "Dám Thrír Táncatair Ille). It has been characterized by Stern as an Ossianic ballad of the 12th century, i.e., a poem in the pretext of a work by Oisín in reminiscence of the Fianna's past. The ballad relates how a threesome from Iruaid brings along a magical dog (Irish: Ṡalinnis (Shalinnis) (LL version)[10] / Failinis (Lismore version))[11]) which turns any fresh water (spring water) it touches into mead or wine. The dog once belonged to Lugh of the mantles (Irish: Lugh na Lenn, a corruption of Lugh's matronymic "Lugh mac Ethlenn"[12]). The hound is responsible for the death of one of the Fianna (Dubán mac Bresail) so that the threesome (Sela, Dorait, Domnán) forfeit the dog as compensation. The Fianna then kill the hound and flay its hide (presumably with its wine-making powers intact), and carry it off into foreign campaigns.

In Irish mythology, Bres (aka Eochaid Bres or Eochu Bres; modern spelling: Breas or Eochaidh Breas) was a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann. His parents were Prince Elatha of the Fomorians and Eri, daughter of Delbaith. He was an unpopular king, and favoured his Fomorian kin. He led the Fomorians in the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh but lost. He was found unprotected on the battlefield by Lugh and pleaded for his life. Lugh spared him because he promised to teach the Tuatha Dé agriculture.

In the Ulster Cycle of early Irish literature, the Lúin of Celtchar (Irish: Lúin Celtchair) is the name of a long, fiery lance or spear belonging to Celtchar mac Uthechar and wielded by other heroes, such as Dubthach, Mac Cécht and Fedlimid.

Celtchar (or Celtchair), son of Uthechar or Uthidir, is a character from the Ulster Cycle of Irish Mythology. In Scéla Mucce Maic Dathó ("The Tale of Mac Dathó's Pig") he is described as "a grey, tall, very terrible hero of Ulster".
In compensation for murdering Blaí Briugu, who had slept with his wife, Celtchar has to rid Ulster of three menaces.

The first is Conganchnes mac Dedad, who seeks revenge for the death of his nephew Cú Roí, and who has skin like horn, which no weapon can pierce. Celtchar offers him his daughter Niam in marriage, who discovers that Conganchnes can only be killed by hammering red hot spits into the soles of his feet. She passes the information to her father, who does the deed.

The second menace is a ferocious dog called Luch Donn ("brown mouse"). It had been found as a pup by a widow, who raised it until it was enormous and uncontrollable. It killed all the widow's sheep and cattle, then her sons, and finally the widow herself, and now it devastates a settlement every night. Celtchar finds an alder log, hollows it out so his arm will fit through it, and boils it in honey, grease and herbs until it tough and supple. He approaches the dog with the log over his arm, and when the dog bites into it its teeth get stuck, enabling Celtchar to pull its heart out through its throat, killing it.

The third menace is Dóelchú, Celtchar's own dog. It was found as a pup inside Conganchnes's burial mound, and would only let Celtchar handle it, until one day it escaped, and became a menace to the cattle and sheep of Ulster. Celtchar finds the dog and calls to it, and it comes and licks his feet. Reluctantly, Celtchar dispatches it with his spear. As he lifts the spear, a drop of the dog's poisonous blood runs down it and through Celtchar's body, killing him.

Cú Roí (Cú Ruí, Cú Raoi) mac Dáire is a king of Munster in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology. He is usually portrayed as a warrior with superhuman abilities and a master of disguise possessed of magical powers. Though often an outsider figure, for instance in the role of intervener or arbitrator, Cú Roí appears in a great number of medieval Irish texts, including Forfess Fer Fálgae, Amra Con Roi, Brinna Ferchertne, Aided Chon Roi (in several recensions), Fled Bricrenn, Mesca Ulad and Táin Bó Cúailnge. The early Irish tale-lists refer to such titles as Aided Chon Roí, Echtra Chon Roí (List A), Orgain Chathrach Chon Roí and Cathbúada Con Roí (List , but only the first of these tales can be shown to have survived in some form.[4] Several tales describe the enmity between him and the Ulster hero Cú Chulainn, who eventually kills him.
Cú Roí plays an important role in the 8th-century tale Fled Bricrenn (Bricriu's Feast). The trickster Bricriu incites the heroes Cú Chulainn, Conall Cernach and Lóegaire Búadach to compete for the champion's portion at a feast, and Cú Roí is one of those who judged among them. Like all the other judges, he chooses Cú Chulainn, but Conall and Lóegaire refuse to accept his verdict. When the three heroes return to Ulster, Cú Roí appears to each in the guise of a hideous churl (bachlach) and challenges them to behead him, then allow him to return and behead them. Only Cú Chulainn is brave and honourable enough to submit himself to the churl's axe, so he is declared champion. This story is related to the "beheading game" motif appearing in many later works in Arthurian literature - most famously the 14th-century English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, although closer correspondences are to be found in Diu Crone and la Mule sans Frein, both of which feature a revolving fortress like Cu Roi's.
The episode appears as Aislinge n-Aimirgin ("The trance of Amairgin") in Recension I of the Táin.[8] Having followed news of Cú Chulainn's sustained success in single-handedly opposing the Connacht army, Cú Roí once again appears on the scene, this time to fight Cú Chulainn directly. However, on finding Cú Chulainn weak from the injuries which Ferdiad had recently inflicted on him, he refused to carry out his original plan. Instead he faces the giant warrior poet Amairgin...
Cú Roí's death by Cú Chulainn's hand is the subject of the tale Aided Con Roi, which survives in two versions. A number of tales describe enmity between the two warriors, and some allude to a lost story of its origin. Texts such as Forfess Fer Fálgae and Siaburcharpát Con Culainn describe a raid on Inis Fer Falga (possibly the Isle of Man) in which Cú Roí and Cú Chulainn come into conflict. The texts indicate that two were involved in an Ulster raid on the Fir Falgae, with Cú Roí participating again in disguise. They steal treasure and abduct Bláthnat, daughter of the king of the island, who loves Cú Chulainn. But when Cú Roí is asked to choose his share, he chooses Bláthnat. Cú Chulainn tries to stop him taking her, but Cú Roí drives him into the ground up to his armpits and cuts off his hair before escaping, taking Bláthnat with him.
Aided Con Roí[edit]
Later, Bláthnat (Blanaid) betrays Cú Roí to Cú Chulainn, who besieges his fort and killed him. In one version of the story, Cú Roí's soul was hidden in an apple in the belly of a salmon which lived in a stream in the Slieve Mish Mountains, and only surfaced once every seven years; Bláthnat discovered the secret and told Cú Chulainn, who killed the fish, enabling him to kill Cú Roí. However Ferchertne, Cú Roí's poet, enraged at the betrayal of his lord, grabbed Bláthnat and leaped off a cliff, killing her and himself.
Cú Roí's uncle (or brother or nephew), Conganchnes ("Horn-skinned"), tried to avenge him, but was killed by Celtchar. His son, Lugaid mac Con Roí, later succeedes in avenging him by killing Cú Chulainn, a story told in Aided Con Culainn. Lugaid is himself killed by Conall Cernach.

Central to the Lúghnasadh ritual in its oldest form was an enactment of the myth of the season. Certainly some version or other of Cath Maige Tuired would have been the most popular material for this in early Ireland (even though the literary sources had the battle -- like virtually all supernatural events -- taking place on Samhain!), but a huge number of variants were possible. A person playing the role of Lúgh -- or of a local saint or hero who had taken on Lúgh's attributes -- would fight against the various monsters sent against him by the Fomorian god of the Land, and eventually triumph over the god of the Land himself. In modern Ireland the god of the Land is almost always Crom Dubh ("The Bent Black One" -- the holiday is often called Domhnach Croim Dhuibh -- "Crom Dubh's Sunday" -- after him), and one of the principal adversaries he sends against his challenger is a great bull41 (unlike horses, who symbolize the power of the Tribe, cattle represent the Land: cows are its nurturing aspect, but bulls show its destructive side). Lúgh's victory, in some cases, may have been dramatized as leaping over a stone head. "The Gaulish figure of the mounted cavalier prancing over a head emerging from the ground,or over a giant emerging from the ground, seems to illustrate this myth and may even be a representation of an acted rite."42

The Serbs more than any other people imagined Dazbog as a lame old man, dressed in animal skins, usually bear skin, accompanied by a wolf. The wolf actually stands for his animal incarnation, or his primary shape that did not cease to exist after Dazbog turned anthropomorphic. The wolf became a servant, and often a messenger as well. Although his basic form was anthropomorphic, Dazbog frequently changed his shape, and his earliest wolf form remained his symbol. As the Serbs considered themselves his descendants, the wolf became a sacred animal.

Although these medieval documents come from the East Slavic area, names similar to Dažbog/Dažboh have survived in the folklores of both West and South Slavic populations. Of particular interest is the Serbian Dabog or Dajbog (most modern mythographers take for granted this is the same character as East Slavic Dažbog/Dažboh), also known as Hromi Daba (meaning "Daba the Lame"), described in folklore as a lame "shepherd of wolves", an ugly demon-lord who rules the underworld and travels through the world of men.

Among the tribes of the Laigin were the Luighne (Race of Lugh, part of the Cianacht, "Family of Cian") and the Dealbhne, the "Shining Race", which was split between the septs of Nuadat (Nuada) and Eathra (the Mariner, probably Manannan).

12th century Life and Acts of St. Patrick tells much the same story. Here the god is called Cenncroithi, interpreted as "the head of all gods"

The Laigin, like the Tuatha Dé Danann, are also associated with the Cruithne. Beli Mawr, the husband of the goddess Danu, is the legendary founder the Deisi, later rulers of the British kingdom of Dyfed.

beli: shining (modern Welsh: pelydur--radiant. It is common for b's and p's to mutate into one another in Welsh, depending on dialect and time period. Deriving from the Celtic word bel--to shine, to be bright. The old Celtic god was called Belinos/Belenos)

mawr: great, large

Legendary king of Britain, Beli either is in origin the Celtic sun god Belenos or was conflated with him at an early period, but here in his medieval form is consort to the (semi-hypothetical) earth mother Dôn...

Saint Brendan and his brethren are erecting a church at Cloghane, at the foot of Mount Brandon. They ask the local pagan chieftain, Crom Dubh, for a contribution. He volunteers a bull, knowing full well that the bull is wild and dangerous. Brendan's monks attach a halter to the bull's neck and lead the animal placidly away. The bull was slaughtered and his meet was eaten by the workers and his blood was used for mortar. Crom Dubh is furious and demands the bull's return. Brendan writes the words Ave Maria on a slip of paper and suggests to Crom Dubh that the paper weighs more than the bull. Nonsense, asserts the pagan chieftain. A scale is arranged and, sure enough, the paper outweighs the bull. Crom Dubh is so impressed that he submits to conversion, along with all of his tribe. A pattern (patron saint day) to Crom Dubh's honor is held in the village of Ballybran on the last day of every July ever since. It is called in Irish Domach Crom Dubh (Crom Dubh Sunday). Some villagers add that the celebration of Domach Crom Dubh used to take place in the graveyard around the head which represented Crom Dubh. Marie MacNeill attested to the antiquity of the head and surmised that the stone was probably taken to the top of Mount Brendon for the harvest festival of Lughnasad. (From Irish folclore commission Archives)

In 484 Brendan was born in Tralee, in County Kerry, in the province of Munster, in the south-west of Ireland.[5] He was born among the Altraige, a tribe originally centered around Tralee Bay, to parents called Finnlug and Cara.

Finlug, Fionn Lugh, Finlug, Finnlug, Fionnlugh, Fionnlú, Finlag, Finlo, Fionnlaoch

Derived from Gaelic fionn "white, fair" and lug "light, brightness". The second element may refer to the pagan sun god Lugh, in which case it means "fair Lugh". This was the name of numerous minor early Irish saints ("three of the most often mentioned are Finnlug, the father of Saint Brendan; Finnlug of Doon (Co. Limerick); and Finnlug, the father of St Finnian of Clonard"), "which is curious, as the name combines those of two of the best-known pagan figures, Fionn mac Cumhaill and Lug Lámfhota... James Joyce cites the name as ‘Fynlogue’ in Finnegans Wake (1939), exploiting both the shadowy ambiguity and the possible associations with Fionn mac Cumhaill." It is probably an older form of Fionnlagh (a Christianized variant, in which the second element was replaced with laogh "hero, warrior").

Crom was not a batchelor. We have 2 stories of Crom having a partner - 1) Aine or Corra, goddess of Ireland, and harvest deity, who lives on Cruachain Aigle aka The Reek or Croagh Patrick. 2) He attracted a familiar spirit that followed him. Her name is a generic: Linnaun shee, a fairy sweetheart; in Irish spelt "leannán sidhe." Linnaun-shee or more correct Lannaun-shee; a familiar spirit or fairy that attaches itself to a mortal and follows him. From Irish leannan, a lover, and sidh [shee], a fairy: lannaun-shee, 'fairy-lover.' This clearly tells us that Crom as a mortal had special powers sufficient to have a fairy lover... Crom’s two sons were called Téideach and Clonnach, they are made out to be even worse than Crom himself. Crom also had two dogs - Coinn Iothair (hound of rage) and Saidhthe Suaraighe (bitch of wickedness).

A pilgrimage is made to Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday in July, and although such a pilgrimage is associated with Lughnasa, locally it is called Domnack Chrom Dubh (Crom Dubh's Sunday). Lough na Corra at the base of the mountain is thought to be the site where a demon named "Cora" was driven by the saint.

Saint Patrick fought one of his greatest battles at this site as he was lured into battled with Corra the triple goddess taking serpent form. From Loch Derg (Lake of the Cave) Patrick was abducted into the otherworld but he escaped which shows his victory not only over Corra but of all Paganism as it is said that after defeating Corra all snakes on Irish soil disappeared. But there is a hint on that Island the lake of the ‘cave’ and with Corra in snake form, for the ‘cave’ was a pagan sanctuary, with a temple of incubation – which practised this ritual of incubation of entering the otherworld through mind altering techniques or drugs. The snake was always associated with these sanctuaries as throughout Europe in similar temples they roamed free. It is well documented that the Romans wiped out such sanctuaries, wiping out these ancient practices, creating the way for Christianity – and so we have Saint Patrick fighting Corra, a symbolism of Irish Paganism.

The Bran cult seems also to have been imported from the Aegean. There are remarkable resemblances between him and the Pelasgian hero Aesculapius who, like the chieftain Coronus ('crow') killed by Hercules, was a king of the Thessalian crow-totem tribe of Lapiths. Aesculapius was a Crow on both sides of the family: his mother was Coronis ('crow'), probably a tide of the Goddess Athene to whom the crow was sacred. Tatian, the Church Father, in his Address to the Greeks, suggests a mother and son relationship between Athene and Aesculapius: After the decapitation of the Gorgon .. . Athene and Aesculapius divided the blood between them, and while he saved lives by means of them, she by the same blood became a murderess and instigator of wars. Aesculapius's father was Apollo, who was first a god of the Underworld and then became a sun god.

Because of their dark color and gruesome dietary habits, ravens were especially connected with gods of war and death. But those same gods were also associated with growth and fertility, so ravens were also symbols of new life. It was the raven that accompanied the souls of the dead to the afterlife, and portraits of the deceased often depicted them with the bird. Ravens were sometimes viewed as reincarnated warriors or heroes — the Welsh hero Owain had an army of invincible ravens, which are sometimes interpreted as an army of reincarnated warriors.

The warrior god Bendigeitvran, better known as “Bran the Blessed,” was for a time the Welsh/British father god; his name means “blessed raven.” Bran's head is rumored to be buried under the Tower of London, where it protects England against invaders. A persistent superstition regarding the tower is that should the ravens who inhabit it flee, England will be without protection.
The raven was the ruler of the domain of air and therefore of communication; the cry of the raven was often interpreted as the voice of the gods. Images of the gods Lugh and Bran often depict them with birds alighting on their heads and shoulders, symbolizing this divine communication. (The Norse god Odin, who is sometimes compared to Lugh and Bran, has as his companions two ravens called Thought and Memory.) For this reason, ravens were favored by the druids for use in divinatory ritual.

The Welsh mythological texts of the Mabinogion were recorded between the 14th and 15th centuries in Middle Welsh. As a result there are discrepancies regarding the spelling of names, because English translations maintain Middle Welsh orthography whereas Modern Welsh versions use Modern Welsh orthography. In Middle Welsh, there was some variation on the name Brân; other forms include Vran and Uran.

John T. Koch proposes a number of parallels between the mythological Bendigeidfran and the historical Celtic chieftain Brennus, who invaded the Balkans in the 3rd century BC.[3]

A decorated stone which has been interpreted by some as the cult image of Crom Cruach was found at Killycluggin, County Cavan, in 1921 (Site number 93, Killycluggin townland, “Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan”, Patrick O’Donovan, 1995, p. 19). O'Kelly, however, refers to this image as Crom Dubh.[5] Roughly dome-shaped and covered in Iron Age La Tène designs, it was discovered broken in several pieces and partly buried close to a Bronze Age stone circle, inside which it probably once stood.[6] The site has several associations with St. Patrick. Nearby is Tobar Padraig (St. Patrick's Well), and Kilnavert Church, which is said to have been founded by the saint. Kilnavert was originally called Fossa Slécht or Rath Slécht, from which the wider Magh Slécht area was named.
Although now much damaged, the stone can be reconstructed from the different surviving pieces. At the base of the stone there were four rectangular adjoining panels measuring 90 cm each in width giving a circumference of 3m 60 cm when it was first carved. The height of each panel was about 75 cm. When excavated and placed upright on its flat base, it was found to lean obliquely to the left from the vertical, perhaps explaining the name Crom, "bent, crooked". The Killycluggin Stone, as it is known, is now in the Cavan County Museum, while a replica stands near the road about 300 metres from the original site.

From Old Irish cara (“friend, relation”) (compare Scottish Gaelic caraid, Manx carrey), from Proto-Celtic *karant- (“friend”), from Proto-Indo-European *ka- (“to like, desire”) (compare Latin cārus, English charity, whore).

cārus m (feminine cāra, neuter cārum); first/second declension - dear, beloved
Etymology - Proto-Indo-European *kāro- (English whore), akin to Sanskrit (kāma, “love”).

kurva f - (vulgar) whore (prostitute)
From Proto-Slavic *kury

From Proto-Indo-European *kowr-. Cognate with Latin caurio.