Hello beefriends! I thought I would do a little introductory post for everyone to better understand who the faeries are in Faerie Stories. :) So far I have made four God Dolls (and yes, I am a Pagan, and they are my Gods), and more will be coming in the future.
Nuada of the Silver Arm
Nuada is one of the kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann (the faeries). In my head, because in Celtic tradition there is a Holly King and an Oak King, Nuada is the Holly King and rules over the winter court (the Unseelie). The Holly King and the Oak King trade off at the solstices, with the Holly King taking over at the summer solstice (so the nights start getting longer and the days shorter), and the Oak King taking over at the winter solstice (so the days start getting longer and the nights shorter).
He is called Nuada of the Silver Arm because once in battle against the Fir Bolg, he lost his right arm and Goibniu the blacksmith made him a silver prosthetic. Eventually Dian Cécht (or his son, according to some sources) the physician was able to heal his arm so that he had a flesh one again. Nuada is a leftie so it wasn't his dominant hand - it's noted that it was his shield arm that he lost.
Nuada wields a sword that is one of the four treasures of the Dannans, known as The Answerer or The Earth Shaker.
the Goddess of War
Morrigan is, as stated, the Goddess of War and is often depicted as a triple Goddess, sometimes with different names. Her sacred animals are ravens and sometimes she takes the form of one. One of the stories about her is that if a warrior sees an old woman washing THEIR clothes at a ford in the river, that's her and it's an omen that they will die in the upcoming battle.
Morrigan makes many appearances in the stories about CuChulainn (Lugh's son, a warrior hero, more on him later) which vary a LOT, but she's the reason you will often see a raven perched on his shoulder in art depicting his death.
In my experiences with Morrigan, she is very witty and has a good snarky sense of humor; she's very nice but takes NO shit. None. Just don't. You'll regret it. 😁
She is a queen of the Dannans, and in my head specifically she is the Mushroom Queen, and Unseelie. She can put a fire into warriors' heads and make them fight each other, whether they want to or not, so even warriors who are on the same side can fight if she has a mind to make them. I've read at least one story where that went on until there was one man left standing, and the desire to fight ended when all the others were dead, and so when he had control of himself again and saw what happened, he went mad and ran off into the forest. Sounds to me like she was Tired Of Humans' Shit, eh?
Lugh of the Long Arm
Lugh of the Long Arm, the many-skilled God, is another king of the Dannans (in my head, the Oak King, as mentioned before) and rules over the Seelie court. The quick-and-dirty is that Seelies are generally pretty nice to humans and Unseelies aren't too fond of humans and are way more likely to mess with you. I mean, don't piss off the faeries in general, but to me it's more like ...Seelies are more prone to give a human the benefit of the doubt and Unseelies are more likely to be rolling their eyes, tired of our human shit. 😉
Here is the CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT: to me, Lugh is a Sun God. Some Pagans will bitch and moan and gnash their teeth over that and scoff and tell you you're wrong, because they say that Lugh being seen as a Sun God is a more modern convention. But, to me, he has always been a Sun God and honestly, Gods change, society changes, our perceptions of Gods change ...even if (and how can you say with any certainty given the sparse and often contradictory, propagandized written sources that are seen as "canon" lore, because Pagan Celts had a writing system but they didn't use it to record much of anything of importance, like religious beliefs, it was an oral culture - the writing starts post-Christianization) he wasn't a Sun God in antiquity and that is a modern convention, maybe that's because he became one to us in the interim. So to me he is the God of the Sun, and no, I don't really care what someone with a medieval history degree has to say about that. 😊
Lugh wields another of the treasures of the Dannans, the Gae Bulga (The Invincible Spear).
the charioteer
Laeg macRiangabair is an actual human person who lived roughly 2000 years ago, give or take. He was CuChulainn's charioteer (yes, also a real human person) and can be read about in the Ulster Cycle (and my novel, hee hee). The description of him in the Ulster Cycle stories is: lots of red hair, green eyes, freckles, gold discs worn in his hair. So that's how I have him. :)
The reason why I see Laeg as one of the fae is kinda complicated, but to me he is the son of Epona (the Horse Goddess). He has two horses that just showed up of their own accord when horse traders arrived at Emain Macha (the capital city of Ulster). They wouldn't let anyone ride them, including Id (Laeg's brother, also a charioteer), except Laeg. Wild horses showed up and chose him. He goes to the Otherworld (the stories vary, but inevitably, he goes at some point) and returns no worse for wear (when often mortals who go to the Otherworld come back kinda touched, like CuChulainn's mother did). And if you roll with the idea that CuChulainn literally makes fire (cue people arguing for a more mundane interpretation here) when he is overcome with his battle fury (he's essentially a berserker), Laeg is riding along in the chariot next to a dude who is on fire and he never gets hurt or burned in any way. He sounds pretty magickal to me. 😊
Goddess of fire, poetry, inspiration, healing, and childbirth
Brighid is a busy Goddess, as you can see. She is also heavily associated with cows, other milk-producing animals kept by humans like sheep, and dairy products, as well as the holiday Imbolc (February 1st, or thereabouts if you celebrate based on the astrological date rather than the calendar date). This is because of her being the Goddess of childbirth, as Imbolc is otherwise known as "the lactation of the ewes," that is, when a lot of the cattle animals would be having their babies, and is considered a sign that spring is coming. I've read the theory that in antiquity, humans in Celtic tribes often had a lot of babies around Imbolc too, because if you think about it, Beltaine (May 1st or thereabouts) is a fertility festival and often included everyone doin' it in the fields to inspire the crops to be fertile. Get a bunch of people boinking each other during a fertility festival, and nine months later is Imbolc, so it was the lactation of the humans as well. ;) Brighid is also the Goddess of the Hearth (because fire!).
Brighid is married to Tuireann, the God of thunder/lightning/storms, and has three sons, Goibniu (the metalsmith who made Nuada's silver arm), Credne (the silversmith), and Luchta (the carpenter), who are known as the Three Gods of Art.*
*who she is married to differs according to different sources, I was first introduced to her as married to Tuireann, so that's what sticks for me. Also sometimes the brothers get changed around, but most commonly I see the Three Gods of Art rather than any alternatives that say they are brothers to Dian Cecht and/or Nuada.
the Champion of Ulster
CuChulainn is the son of Lugh, and a mortal woman called Dechtire macNessa (Dechtire is the sister to the king of Ulster Connor macNessa, and their mother, of course, is Nessa). So in the Ulster Cycle, he's a demigod and ergo has all sorts of skills (his father is the many-skilled God, after all). He is given his father's spear, the Gae Bulga, by the warrior woman Scathach when he goes to her for special training around the age of 13 (the Isle of Skye is where Scathach was a queen that trained the most elite warriors, and the island carries her name to this day [pronounce Scathach like Sky-uh]).
He and Laeg once held off the entire army of Connaught for many days all by themselves while the other warriors of Ulster were beset with a curse; CuChulainn was just a teenager at the time. He is known for having a battle fury (essentially he's a berserker), but he's also very strategic and smart in battle, which he used to his advantage when they were defending Ulster from Connaught's army. Morrigan shows up in the stories about him too, as she's the Goddess of War, and it fluctuates between her testing him, perhaps marking or harming him, trying to stop his death, watching over him, all sorts, depending on the story. CuChulainn's mortal life ended before the age of 30, so I have him (and Laeg) here in the Otherworld with their Faerie parents now!
the God of Healing and physician to the Tuatha De Dannan
Dian Cecht is the physician of the Dannans, and the man who healed Nuada's arm (though some stories say it was his son that did so, I run with it being him). He is associated with healing people with a healing well, medicinal herbs, and incantations. There is a story that quotes him as saying he can heal anyone as long as they're not decapitated; in ancient Ireland there was a headhunting culture where warriors would take the heads of their enemies as it was believed the soul resided inside the brain, so to possess your enemy's head was to literally have possession of their soul, and I can't help but wonder if the two things are related, like, "well if we just stab this guy there's a possibility that the Gods could resurrect him so we better cut his head off because that's the only sure way"? I don't know if that's so, but it's an interesting thought!
There will be more faeries added as I make more God Dolls, but these are who are with me now. :) Hopefully this will make the videos more enjoyable, and help keep straight who is talking if it isn't clear that the different captions = who is speaking. :D
Thanks for reading!
"Digital shinies hold no iron" because supposedly, faeries don't like iron. I interpret this as a nickel allergy! Silver is one of the few nickel-allergy-safe metals (as in, Nuada's arm). But also the Gae Bulga (and possibly the Earth Shaker?) are supposed to be made of some mysterious Otherworldly metal, right. What if that metal is titanium, which is another nickel-safe metal but totally wouldn't have been used by iron age people in general ...maybe the Dannans did use it, and that's why it was this mysterious metal to the humans. Nuada's arm might have been made with that too if that's so, because titanium looks silver.
