Mythical king in Irish mythology
In
Irish mythology
,
Bres
(or
Bress
) was a king of the
Tuatha De Danann
. He is often referred to by the name
Eochaid
/
Eochu Bres
. He was an unpopular king, and favoured his
Fomorian
kin.
Name
[
edit
]
Eochu Bres
has been translated as "beautiful horseman." The scribes who wrote down the text of the
Cath Maige Tuired
record
Bres
as meaning 'beautiful', however, this may be a false etymology.
[1]
The original meaning of
Bres
may have derived from a root meaning "fight," "blow," "effort," "uproar," or "din."
[2]
Description
[
edit
]
In the
Lebor Gabala
and
Cath Maige Tuired
, Bres is portrayed as beautiful to behold, yet harsh and inhospitable. However, the poem
Carn Hui Neit
from the
dindsenchas
praises Bres' "kindly" and "noble" character and calls him the "flower" of the Tuatha De Danann. There, the following flattering descriptions are provided for Bres:
[3]
- gifted with excellences
- master of love-spells
- kindly friend
- noble and fortunate
- ornament of the host
- with a visage never woeful
- flower of the Tuatha De
- hot of valour
- spear-attended king
Family
[
edit
]
In
Cath Maige Tuired
Bres' parents were Prince
Elatha
of the
Fomorians
and
Eri
of the
Tuatha De Danann
. Alternately in
The Fate of the Children of Turenn
, Bres' father is
Balor
of the Evil Eye.
[2]
He grew so quickly that by the age of seven he was the size of a 14-year-old. His wife was
Brigid
, daughter of the
Dagda
, and his son was Ruadan, who was killed by
Goibniu
.
Irish Mythology
[
edit
]
In the First Battle of
Magh Tuiredh
, King
Nuada
of the Tuatha De Danann lost his hand; because he was imperfect, he could not be king. Hoping to reconcile relations between the Fomorians and the Tuatha De Danann, Bres was named king and
Brigid
of the Tuatha de Danann married him, giving him a son,
Ruadan
, who would later be killed trying to assassinate
Goibniu
.
Bres made the Tuatha De Danann pay tribute to the Fomorians and work as slaves:
Ogma
was forced to carry firewood, and
the Dagda
had to dig trenches around forts. He neglected his duties of hospitality: the Tuatha De complained that after visiting his house their knives were never greased and their breaths did not smell of
ale
.
Cairbre
, poet of the Tuatha De, composed a scathing poem against him, which was the first satire in Ireland, and everything went wrong for Bres after that.
After Bres had ruled for seven years, Nuada had his hand, which had formerly been replaced with a silver one by
Dian Cecht
and
Creidhne
, replaced with one of flesh and blood by Dian Cecht's son
Miach
, with the help of his sister
Airmed
; following the successful replacement, Nuada was restored to kingship and Bres was exiled. He went to his father for help to recover his throne, but Elatha would not help him gain by foul means what he had been unable to keep: "You have no right to get it by injustice when you could not keep it by justice".
[4]
Bres was guided by his father to
Balor
, another leader of the Fomorians, for the help he sought.
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 De
agriculture
.
In a contradictory account from the
dindsenchas
Bres' death is described at the hands of Lugh. Lugh made 300 wooden cows, and filled them with a bitter, poisonous red liquid which was then "milked" into pails and offered to Bres to drink. Bres, who was under an obligation not to refuse hospitality, drank it down without flinching, and it killed him.
[5]
The
Lebor Gabala
mentions this incident briefly, however the deadly liquid is identified as sewage.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
You will bear a son as a result of our meeting, and let no name be given to him but Eochu Bres (that is, Eochu the Beautiful), because every beautiful thing that is seen in Ireland--both plain and fortress, ale and candle, woman and man and horse--will be judged in relation to that boy, so that people will then say of it, 'It is a Bres.'"
Section 21 of the
Cath Maige Tuired
, available at
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/cmt/cmteng.htm
- ^
a
b
Wolf, Casey June (5 September 2015). "The Mythical Pairing of Brig and Bres - Its Origins and Meaning in Cath Maige Tuired".
Academia.edu
: 16.
- ^
unknown.
"The Metrical Dindsenchas"
.
Corpus of Electronic Texts
. Retrieved
31 October
2019
.
- ^
Gregory, Augusta
(2013).
The Essential Celtic Folklore Collection
(reprint ed.). EBookIt.com.
ISBN
978-1456613594
.
- ^
E. J. Gwynn,
The Metrical Dindshenchas
Vol 3,
Poem 40: Carn Hui Neit