Foster-Mother of Lugh and Goddess of the Harvest
Tailtiu was the last queen of the Fir Bolg — the wife of Eochaid mac Eirc, the last Fir Bolg High King, who was killed when the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived and took Ireland. She survived the defeat. The Tuatha Dé took her into their community. Manannán mac Lir, who had rescued the infant Lugh from Balor’s murder order, gave the baby to Tailtiu to raise. She did.
The woman of the defeated people raised the greatest champion of the victorious ones. That is her place in the story.
Then she cleared the forest.
The great woodland of Coill Cuan covered the central Irish midlands. Tailtiu cleared it — tree by tree, root by root — to make the land cultivable. The Plain of Meath that exists today was created by her labour. The work killed her. She died from the effort, facing east so her people could see her.
Lugh established Lughnasadh — the harvest festival on the first of August — in her honour. He named the assembly at Teltown after her. The festival combined athletic contests, horse racing, trade, legal proceedings, and marriage negotiations, held annually at the site that bears her name in County Meath. It ran continuously until at least the twelfth century. The Teltown marriages — trial marriages contracted at the assembly — were recorded by annalists as late as the eleventh century.
Lughnasadh bears Lugh’s name, but it is founded in Tailtiu’s sacrifice. The harvest exists because she cleared the land. The festival exists because Lugh remembered what she did.
Key facts about Tailtiu
- Names: Tailtiu; Teltown (Co. Meath) bears her name
- Rules over: The harvest, cultivated land, the Lughnasadh assembly
- Weapons: Not recorded
- Animals: Not recorded
- Other Symbols: The cleared plain; Teltown; Lughnasadh; athletic games
- Parents: Mag Mór, king of Spain (in the mythological account)
- Siblings: Not recorded
- Spouse: Eochaid mac Eirc (last Fir Bolg High King)
- Children: Not recorded
- Foster-son: Lugh Lámhfhada
- Greek equivalent: Demeter (the goddess whose agricultural labour makes the harvest possible, at great personal cost)
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