Question: So Lugh is sometimes said to have been fostered by Goibniu, sometimes by Manannan Mac Lir and sometimes by Tailtiu. So was he fostered by all of them? And how does that work? Just something that I've been wondering about and figured you'd know more about it than I do.
Guys, let's talk about fosterage in ancient Irish culture!
Fosterage - the practice of farming your children out to be raised by a different family for a few years during their childhood - was an incredibly important feature of social life among the ancient Celts, especially prominent in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Kids might be fostered anywhere between the ages of two to fifteen, although girls were fostered less often and younger since they were expected to come home and get married younger than boys were, and were generally kept by their host families for at least four to six years. The basic gist of the idea is that one family would send their child, along with some wealth (usually livestock, but it depended on the family) to make sure they were provided for, to live with another family for several years, learning their trade and basic schooling before returning home to enter their adult lives. Richer families fostered more often, since they were more likely to have the goods needed to support the kid they sent off; you couldn't send a child to a foster family with nothing, since then you would be placing an unfair burden on the fosterers to try to feed another mouth with no help. But people of all classes did do it, even those who didn't have a lot of money to start with, and often fostering ended up in a sort of trade arrangement, where two families swapped kids and then later swapped them back again.
There are two main points to fosterage. The first is that, by growing up for a while in another family with alternative parents and siblings, children gained with a strong sense of loyalty to more people in their clans and homelands than they would have had if they had only lived at home. In essence, as adults those people had two families who were not necessarily related but to both of whom they owed gratitude, respect and filial feeling, which in turn meant that they were more likely to keep solid alliances with others in the area and defend more than just their own homestead from invaders or famine. Especially during the periods of history when Celtic areas were populated by several only loosely-connected clans or tribes, fosterage helped make sure that there was a reason for people in the area to work together and respect one anothers' boundaries and honor.
The second reason for fosterage was simply to make sure that the child got a good education. Whenever possible, children would be fostered out to someone that could hopefully provide them good learning opportunities; druids, chiefs and lords were popular choices, as well as monks and other churchmen once Christianity was established. They would have the opportunity to learn different things than they could have learned at home, broadening their experiences and giving them a better perspective on their territory and neighbors, ally and enemy alike, than they could have gotten in only one household. For the lower-class children who went into fosterage, they were also often sent so that they could begin learning a useful trade from their new family, which might later lead into apprenticeship and eventually a career that would be able to feed a family.
While most children were only fostered to a single family, it wasn't unheard of for a child to be sent to more than one, particularly if he didn't get along with the people in his first foster home or there was a political falling-out between the two families, so Lugh could certainly have been fostered with more than one person. Lebor Gabala Erenn does indeed say that Lugh's father Cian gave him to Tailtu to foster, and he's called her foster-son in passing in the Cath Maige Tuiread as well; there is no more information about what happened to him during that time, but the only other thing said about Tailtu after that is that she died while Lugh was king and he founded the summer harvest festival in her honor. In the story of the Sons of Tuireann, Lugh is repeatedly referred to as the foster-brother of the sons of Manannan, and furthermore runs around liberally using a bunch of the sea-god's magical items with apparent impunity, so it seems like there's also a firm fostering relationship there (and indeed, Lugh goes on borrowing Manannan's shit pretty much forever). It's also possible that Lugh is foster-brothers with Manannan's children because they were also fostered with Tailtu at the same time that he was, although his relationship with their father seems too close for him not to have been fostered there as well. To add another layer of complexity, there's some theorization that Tailtu is herself a daughter of Manannan (although she also definitely has Fir Bolg blood connections, so this is up for debate), in which case she and her father could both have welcomed Lugh in as a foster-son at the same time. Finally, Goibhniu does raise Lugh for at least a while and teach him various crafts (which makes lots of sense, since fostering your kids out to their uncles was a common practice and at least one genealogy has Cian and Goibhniu as brothers), and in at least one version it's implied that Manannan might be the one who drops young Lugh off with him instead of Cian, implying a fosterage timeline. (Of course, in another version Goibhniu finds Lugh as an infant, so pick your flavor.)
Lugh's actually a great example of the fosterage system at work, because his special attributes all seem to be traceable back to his fostering adventures as a child. It's because Lugh lives in the family of Manannan mac Lir that he gets access to a bunch of sweet relics and prophetic insight and has ties to the wilder, sea-oriented half of the pantheon that isn't necessarily descended from Danu, which gives him a much better political understanding and position when he later becomes the High King; and because he fosters with Goibhniu, he also grows up knowing, understanding and eventually allying with his Tuatha relatives, even though he is also half Fomorian and grandson of the great Fomorian king Balor. And it's because Lugh lives in the family of Goibhniu that he learns countless different skills, trades and crafts from the craftsmen among the gods, and because he fosters with Manannan that he learns the esoteric arts of wizardry and medicine and herbalism, leading to him becoming the god most reknowned for knowing how to do everything.
It's possible, maybe even likely, that Irish mythology doesn't mean to be strictly literal about who Lugh's foster parents might have been; by referring to various people as his foster parents, it can imply that he has a wide breadth of experiences and training and therefore could be said to be able to do anything, illustrating his position as the most skilled among gods. But on the other hand, bonds of fosterage were considered extremely important, even trumping blood in some cases, so if you want to make some calls to determine where his deepest loyalties lie, that's a valid choice for any game. We personally are pretty comfortable with his status as the foster-son of Manannan mac Lir, but any of the others are good for a game, too.
Showing posts with label Manannan mac Lir. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manannan mac Lir. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
A Wild Wind
Question: I'd like to know some more about the Wild Hunt. I know that each culture has its own version of it. In Scion, how do you handled it?
Well, rolling in first of all with the fact that each culture actually doesn't have a version of the Wild Hunt - far from it, really. The concept is a very northern European one, and you won't find it in the same form in the rest of the world. But there are several possibilities for handing the Hunt within the lands of the European gods, so let's check them out!
First of all, there are basically just buckets of different interpretations of the Hunt, who's on it, who's leading it, who it's chasing, and what it means all over the place, so Storytellers have a veritable smorgasbord of folklore to choose from. In Germany and the Celtic lands surrounding it as well as the British Isles, the Hunt was thought of as made up of the spirits of the dead and the demons that attended them, frightful and dangerous to an living soul unlucky enough to be caught out at night while they were riding; they chase the living in order to add them to their number, and are especially fond of prideful young men and beautiful young women, who should always be cautious to make it indoors before sunset. In other Celtic areas, however, particularly England and Ireland, the Hunt is instead made up for fairy riders who ride with wild and ecstatic abandon, hunting magical animals, mortals who will be taken back to Faerie with them or even unlucky members of their own kind; whether they're dangerous to people or merely frightening and supernatural depends on the area and how comfortable a particular village or shire is with their relationship with the faeries. Sometimes, helping the fairy Wild Hunt can gain you magical prizes or favors (although, as with all things that come from fairies, they are often double-edged swords), but in other areas in any way interacting with them dooms you to share their Hunt, either for the single night or for eternity, and hindering them in any way (even accidental) will surely bring down their supernatural wrath on your head. Some parts of Wales split the difference and claim that the hunt is the hounds and gods of the underworld, chasing down ghosts or spirits that have escaped their final destination, and in areas where Christianity has strongly colored the folklore this is often transformed into a tale of the hounds of Hell chasing down the souls of sinners.
The biggest question, though, is always this: who is the leader of the Wild Hunt? There we have many options as well, all of them interesting and rife with possible plot hooks. Odin himself is one of the most popular options, and indeed the idea of the Wild Hunt in Scandinavia was almost exclusively associated with him, a legend that set him as the wild-eyed leader of a hunt of belling supernatural hounds and the dead warriors of the einherjar; remote areas even today still retain folksayings surrounding Odin being out on particularly stormy or ominously silent nights. On the continent around Denmark and Germany, the Hunt is often said to be helmed by a woman, however - the goddess Holle, who might be either Hel or Freya, leading her own horde of the dead for her dark amusement. In Britain, the figure of Herne the Hunter is often said to be the leader of the Wild Hunt, comprised of both the dead and the beasts of the deep woods, and more than a few scholars have pointed out that his name is etymologically very similar to that of Cernunnos, not to mention that both figures are often represented as horned or antlered. In Wales, the terrifying god Gwyn ap Nudd (literally "Gwyn, son of Nudd", who is the Welsh version of Nuada) leads the hunt from the Underworld flanked by the demons of death, the better to catch the fleeing souls of those who have just died and take them home with him again; Nuada himself isn't associated with the hunt over in Ireland, but Manannan mac Lir, god of the galloping waves which are his horses, has been theorized by scholars to perhaps do the same, possibly in search of the souls of heroes who have died in the crossing to Mag Mell. In areas where the Wild Hunt is a fairy event, it is often said to be led by Auberon or whomever the local king or queen of the fairies is considered to be. And, one of the youngest but most interesting versions, it's also a matter of myth in some parts of Britain that the Wild Hunt is led by King Arthur himself, still searching for the Questing Beast with the shades of his loyal knights, spending the ages searching for it until, on the day he succeeds, he returns to lead England to glory again.
As for us, our games have actually seen the Skeins of Fate group participate in the Wild Hunt, which was held by the fairies of the Autumn Court with a hapless Gaulish Scion as their quarry. It was led by the Autumn King, who was a creature of indistinct nightmare that no one got a very good look at; it's still unsure if he's simply a fairy they had an encounter with, or if he might have been a god in disguise that they didn't recognize. Certainly, Aurora pulled off some very ballsy maneuvers there and largely got away with it, so one has to wonder whether or not there were two eyes under that dark crown. One of the Eastern Promises groups also heard tell of the Wild Hunt beginning soon somewhere nearby, but they ended up going somewhere else to solve their problems, and consequently still have not encountered whomever or whatever hunts at midnight.
We like to keep the Hunt ambiguous - who knows if they players will ever investigate enough to learn the real truth? But there are myriad possibilities for anyone who wants to use them in a game, and the plots practically write themselves.
P.S.: Do you guys know this song? It's on our playlist for the Strawberry Fields game thanks to Seamus, our Scion of Manannan mac Lir, and although not strictly about the Hunt, you can almost feel the hoofbeats shaking the ground as they go.
Well, rolling in first of all with the fact that each culture actually doesn't have a version of the Wild Hunt - far from it, really. The concept is a very northern European one, and you won't find it in the same form in the rest of the world. But there are several possibilities for handing the Hunt within the lands of the European gods, so let's check them out!
First of all, there are basically just buckets of different interpretations of the Hunt, who's on it, who's leading it, who it's chasing, and what it means all over the place, so Storytellers have a veritable smorgasbord of folklore to choose from. In Germany and the Celtic lands surrounding it as well as the British Isles, the Hunt was thought of as made up of the spirits of the dead and the demons that attended them, frightful and dangerous to an living soul unlucky enough to be caught out at night while they were riding; they chase the living in order to add them to their number, and are especially fond of prideful young men and beautiful young women, who should always be cautious to make it indoors before sunset. In other Celtic areas, however, particularly England and Ireland, the Hunt is instead made up for fairy riders who ride with wild and ecstatic abandon, hunting magical animals, mortals who will be taken back to Faerie with them or even unlucky members of their own kind; whether they're dangerous to people or merely frightening and supernatural depends on the area and how comfortable a particular village or shire is with their relationship with the faeries. Sometimes, helping the fairy Wild Hunt can gain you magical prizes or favors (although, as with all things that come from fairies, they are often double-edged swords), but in other areas in any way interacting with them dooms you to share their Hunt, either for the single night or for eternity, and hindering them in any way (even accidental) will surely bring down their supernatural wrath on your head. Some parts of Wales split the difference and claim that the hunt is the hounds and gods of the underworld, chasing down ghosts or spirits that have escaped their final destination, and in areas where Christianity has strongly colored the folklore this is often transformed into a tale of the hounds of Hell chasing down the souls of sinners.
The biggest question, though, is always this: who is the leader of the Wild Hunt? There we have many options as well, all of them interesting and rife with possible plot hooks. Odin himself is one of the most popular options, and indeed the idea of the Wild Hunt in Scandinavia was almost exclusively associated with him, a legend that set him as the wild-eyed leader of a hunt of belling supernatural hounds and the dead warriors of the einherjar; remote areas even today still retain folksayings surrounding Odin being out on particularly stormy or ominously silent nights. On the continent around Denmark and Germany, the Hunt is often said to be helmed by a woman, however - the goddess Holle, who might be either Hel or Freya, leading her own horde of the dead for her dark amusement. In Britain, the figure of Herne the Hunter is often said to be the leader of the Wild Hunt, comprised of both the dead and the beasts of the deep woods, and more than a few scholars have pointed out that his name is etymologically very similar to that of Cernunnos, not to mention that both figures are often represented as horned or antlered. In Wales, the terrifying god Gwyn ap Nudd (literally "Gwyn, son of Nudd", who is the Welsh version of Nuada) leads the hunt from the Underworld flanked by the demons of death, the better to catch the fleeing souls of those who have just died and take them home with him again; Nuada himself isn't associated with the hunt over in Ireland, but Manannan mac Lir, god of the galloping waves which are his horses, has been theorized by scholars to perhaps do the same, possibly in search of the souls of heroes who have died in the crossing to Mag Mell. In areas where the Wild Hunt is a fairy event, it is often said to be led by Auberon or whomever the local king or queen of the fairies is considered to be. And, one of the youngest but most interesting versions, it's also a matter of myth in some parts of Britain that the Wild Hunt is led by King Arthur himself, still searching for the Questing Beast with the shades of his loyal knights, spending the ages searching for it until, on the day he succeeds, he returns to lead England to glory again.
As for us, our games have actually seen the Skeins of Fate group participate in the Wild Hunt, which was held by the fairies of the Autumn Court with a hapless Gaulish Scion as their quarry. It was led by the Autumn King, who was a creature of indistinct nightmare that no one got a very good look at; it's still unsure if he's simply a fairy they had an encounter with, or if he might have been a god in disguise that they didn't recognize. Certainly, Aurora pulled off some very ballsy maneuvers there and largely got away with it, so one has to wonder whether or not there were two eyes under that dark crown. One of the Eastern Promises groups also heard tell of the Wild Hunt beginning soon somewhere nearby, but they ended up going somewhere else to solve their problems, and consequently still have not encountered whomever or whatever hunts at midnight.
We like to keep the Hunt ambiguous - who knows if they players will ever investigate enough to learn the real truth? But there are myriad possibilities for anyone who wants to use them in a game, and the plots practically write themselves.
P.S.: Do you guys know this song? It's on our playlist for the Strawberry Fields game thanks to Seamus, our Scion of Manannan mac Lir, and although not strictly about the Hunt, you can almost feel the hoofbeats shaking the ground as they go.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Otherworlds On Parade
Question: I've asked this question a hundred times before but I get the feeling my phone eats it: With Enech Overhaul drastically in the lead, could we maybe get a blog post on the REAL Tuatha Overworld and Underworld (and possibly general cosmology) instead of what's in Companion?
You sure can. Irish cosmology, coming up!
First of all, the cosmological landscape of ancient Ireland is one of those that really doesn't conform to the Underworld-Overworld-World setup of the Scion books, which used more obliging cultures like the Norse and Greek to base it. It's probably because of its general weirdness that the Scion books do such a hackjob on it, but that's no excuse for making up the shoddily-conceived likes of Tir na Marbh, no matter how much the idea of the Tuatha cooperating with the Welsh gods might otherwise appeal.
Other than the earth where humanity dwells, there are three to four major worlds in the Irish cosmology: the Overworld (Tir na nOgh), two Underworlds (Mag Mell and Tech nDuinn), and Faerie. Collectively, these are called the Otherworld by many scholars, since Irish mythology embraces a concept of all the worlds being apart from the world of humanity but also ephemerally close to it in some way.
Tir na nOgh ("Land of Youth") is one of the most misunderstood, which is weird because it's perfectly clear in the Irish sagas and most of its problems come from later people interpreting it through the lens of Christianity. It is not, contrary to confused popular opinion, an Underworld; the dead do not dwell here, nor is the disposition of souls part of its function. It is the home of the gods, and here all is beauty and contentment and art and peace, with no misfortune or danger, no old age or hunger, and definitely no bad guys to plague the gods who are busy enjoying it. It's to Tir na nOgh that the Tuatha retired when they left the World, and because it is conceived of as a beautiful land far across the western sea, there are occasional stories in Irish mythology of heroes attempting to reach it by sailing off into the sunset. A few mortals do live here once in a while, always because they were brought there by some god or quest, and they remain indefinitely since they can't age or die (in mechanical terms, they probably become Legendary Mortals the second they set foot in the place).
Mag Mell ("Joyful Plain"), on the other hand, is an Underworld, but is similarly pleasant and wonderful. It's owned and ruled by Manannan mac Lir, who dwells here with his seemingly neverending horde of fancy relics, and is the eventual destination for Irish heroes who die after glorious and honorable lives (like Valhalla or the Elysian Fields, it admits only the awesomest mortals to spend eternity in its sweet fields). Like Tir na nOgh, it's full of nothing but beauty, joy and eternal youth, and nothing bad ever touches its inhabitants. The same idea of a place far across the sea is preserved here - which makes especial sense thanks to Manannan mac Lir's involvement - and it is also sought after by sailing heroes once in a while, though it's not found as often as Tir na nOgh. An interesting variant tradition has been interpreted as saying that this Underworld is ruled over by the Fomorian king Tethra, who is mostly unattested in other Irish mythology; it's hard to say if perhaps he was considered its lord before the victory of the Tuatha saw him supplanted by Manannan, or if maybe in reverse he became an important personage in the Underworld after dying in glorious battle against the gods. He's also said to be married to Badb, a sister or alternative name for the Morrigan, which gives him another connection to the idea of death.
Tech nDuinn ("House of Donn") is the other Underworld, and the destination of everyone who isn't badass enough to be granted a golden ticket to Mag Mell. It's also an island, but unlike the first two was usually assumed to be much closer, in the neighborhood of what is now North Bull Island off Ireland's northeast coast. It was believed that below that island lay the isle of the dead, where all the souls of the departed traveled and were stored under Donn as the king. This particular myth is Donn's own fault, since he insulted Eriu - the personified goddess of Ireland, most likely Danu under another name - and was drowned by Manannan mac Lir for it, and therefore now holds court under the sea where he himself died. Not a lot is actually written about what Tech nDuinn is like, other than that it's underground, ruled by Donn, and not as happy a place to end up as Mag Mell, more likely a closer equivalent to the difference between Valhalla and Hel.
Faerie, finally, is a much younger but very entrenched world, the dwelling place of Ireland's vast hosts of sprites, elves, brownies and kobolds. It's generally believed to be inside or beneath the hills of Ireland - thus the word Underhill often being used as an equivalent name for it - which are often accorded respect as fairy places, but beyond that there are as many different ideas of what Faerie is and who's in it as there are counties and villages in Ireland. Some split it into two courts, one good and one evil; others split it into courts revolving around the seasons or the Virtues; still others believe it's a single unified realm ruled by a fairy king or queen, and of course the identity of that king or queen also differs from place to place. Much later English writers, taken with the charm of the legends of Faerie, have also muddied the waters a great deal - Shakespeare, for example, who invented the fairy queen Mab in his play Romeo and Juliet (probably basing her on some form of the Morrigan), or the invention of the fairy king Auberon in the thirteenth-century French epic poem Huon de Bordeaux. There are also several traditions that claim that the fairies are in fact the Tuatha de Danann themselves, who went Underhill to escape Christianity after the coming of the Milesians, and therefore there's also some muddying of the waters between Faerie and Tir na nOgh, depending on who's telling the story. It's an epic mess, and we couldn't even try to tell you which way is "right"; that's a call for every game's Storyteller to make.
A thing that does not exist, however, is Tir na Marbh ("Land of Death"), which was invented by Scion purely in an attempt to plug something in where the usual Hades or Hel or Mictlan would go. We have no idea why they did this when there were two perfectly good Irish Underworlds already hanging around - maybe they thought Mag Mell was too nice/the same as Tir na nOgh, and Tech nDuinn too obscure? - but it's a pretty terrible conglomeration of random things and should probably be ignored, like most of the Tuatha chapter of Companion's attempts at worldbuilding.
The idea of the Tuatha collaborating closely with the Welsh gods, however, is a great one, since they clearly know one another well and appear in each others' epic stories, so keep that. Just throw away all the Underworld junk surrounding it.
You sure can. Irish cosmology, coming up!
First of all, the cosmological landscape of ancient Ireland is one of those that really doesn't conform to the Underworld-Overworld-World setup of the Scion books, which used more obliging cultures like the Norse and Greek to base it. It's probably because of its general weirdness that the Scion books do such a hackjob on it, but that's no excuse for making up the shoddily-conceived likes of Tir na Marbh, no matter how much the idea of the Tuatha cooperating with the Welsh gods might otherwise appeal.
Other than the earth where humanity dwells, there are three to four major worlds in the Irish cosmology: the Overworld (Tir na nOgh), two Underworlds (Mag Mell and Tech nDuinn), and Faerie. Collectively, these are called the Otherworld by many scholars, since Irish mythology embraces a concept of all the worlds being apart from the world of humanity but also ephemerally close to it in some way.
Tir na nOgh ("Land of Youth") is one of the most misunderstood, which is weird because it's perfectly clear in the Irish sagas and most of its problems come from later people interpreting it through the lens of Christianity. It is not, contrary to confused popular opinion, an Underworld; the dead do not dwell here, nor is the disposition of souls part of its function. It is the home of the gods, and here all is beauty and contentment and art and peace, with no misfortune or danger, no old age or hunger, and definitely no bad guys to plague the gods who are busy enjoying it. It's to Tir na nOgh that the Tuatha retired when they left the World, and because it is conceived of as a beautiful land far across the western sea, there are occasional stories in Irish mythology of heroes attempting to reach it by sailing off into the sunset. A few mortals do live here once in a while, always because they were brought there by some god or quest, and they remain indefinitely since they can't age or die (in mechanical terms, they probably become Legendary Mortals the second they set foot in the place).
Mag Mell ("Joyful Plain"), on the other hand, is an Underworld, but is similarly pleasant and wonderful. It's owned and ruled by Manannan mac Lir, who dwells here with his seemingly neverending horde of fancy relics, and is the eventual destination for Irish heroes who die after glorious and honorable lives (like Valhalla or the Elysian Fields, it admits only the awesomest mortals to spend eternity in its sweet fields). Like Tir na nOgh, it's full of nothing but beauty, joy and eternal youth, and nothing bad ever touches its inhabitants. The same idea of a place far across the sea is preserved here - which makes especial sense thanks to Manannan mac Lir's involvement - and it is also sought after by sailing heroes once in a while, though it's not found as often as Tir na nOgh. An interesting variant tradition has been interpreted as saying that this Underworld is ruled over by the Fomorian king Tethra, who is mostly unattested in other Irish mythology; it's hard to say if perhaps he was considered its lord before the victory of the Tuatha saw him supplanted by Manannan, or if maybe in reverse he became an important personage in the Underworld after dying in glorious battle against the gods. He's also said to be married to Badb, a sister or alternative name for the Morrigan, which gives him another connection to the idea of death.
Tech nDuinn ("House of Donn") is the other Underworld, and the destination of everyone who isn't badass enough to be granted a golden ticket to Mag Mell. It's also an island, but unlike the first two was usually assumed to be much closer, in the neighborhood of what is now North Bull Island off Ireland's northeast coast. It was believed that below that island lay the isle of the dead, where all the souls of the departed traveled and were stored under Donn as the king. This particular myth is Donn's own fault, since he insulted Eriu - the personified goddess of Ireland, most likely Danu under another name - and was drowned by Manannan mac Lir for it, and therefore now holds court under the sea where he himself died. Not a lot is actually written about what Tech nDuinn is like, other than that it's underground, ruled by Donn, and not as happy a place to end up as Mag Mell, more likely a closer equivalent to the difference between Valhalla and Hel.
Faerie, finally, is a much younger but very entrenched world, the dwelling place of Ireland's vast hosts of sprites, elves, brownies and kobolds. It's generally believed to be inside or beneath the hills of Ireland - thus the word Underhill often being used as an equivalent name for it - which are often accorded respect as fairy places, but beyond that there are as many different ideas of what Faerie is and who's in it as there are counties and villages in Ireland. Some split it into two courts, one good and one evil; others split it into courts revolving around the seasons or the Virtues; still others believe it's a single unified realm ruled by a fairy king or queen, and of course the identity of that king or queen also differs from place to place. Much later English writers, taken with the charm of the legends of Faerie, have also muddied the waters a great deal - Shakespeare, for example, who invented the fairy queen Mab in his play Romeo and Juliet (probably basing her on some form of the Morrigan), or the invention of the fairy king Auberon in the thirteenth-century French epic poem Huon de Bordeaux. There are also several traditions that claim that the fairies are in fact the Tuatha de Danann themselves, who went Underhill to escape Christianity after the coming of the Milesians, and therefore there's also some muddying of the waters between Faerie and Tir na nOgh, depending on who's telling the story. It's an epic mess, and we couldn't even try to tell you which way is "right"; that's a call for every game's Storyteller to make.
A thing that does not exist, however, is Tir na Marbh ("Land of Death"), which was invented by Scion purely in an attempt to plug something in where the usual Hades or Hel or Mictlan would go. We have no idea why they did this when there were two perfectly good Irish Underworlds already hanging around - maybe they thought Mag Mell was too nice/the same as Tir na nOgh, and Tech nDuinn too obscure? - but it's a pretty terrible conglomeration of random things and should probably be ignored, like most of the Tuatha chapter of Companion's attempts at worldbuilding.
The idea of the Tuatha collaborating closely with the Welsh gods, however, is a great one, since they clearly know one another well and appear in each others' epic stories, so keep that. Just throw away all the Underworld junk surrounding it.
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