I’m sure you are familiar with the naming convention of many Celtic peoples where a son is named after his father or at least a notable fore-bearer.  Among the Irish you have Mc and Mac and O s which are really Ui s.  The Welsh use Ap and Map the same way.  In short O’Neill means grandson of Neill whereas MacNeill means son of Neill.

How else to keep separate all the Anguses and Rhaurys and Eochaids?  Ah, well, before the application of the now traditional surnames, notable personages received Bye Names (at least we have theirs recorded, likely everybody had them).  After all, in the list of High Kings of Ireland alone there are plenty of Eochaids and Aedhs and Nialls.  Fortunately there are nickname like descriptive names that when added to their given names help to keep track of just which one you are talking about.

Interestingly many people who’s surname is O’Neill or MacNeill might think that their name comes from the famous Niall of the Nine Hostages.  They may share genetics with Noigiallach but the name comes from a later Niall, Niall Glundubh, that is Black Knee.

Much more mysterious to me than how Niall Nine Hostages got his name is what in the world happened to stick Niall Glundubh with the bye name Black Knee.  Does anyone out there know the origin of Black Knee?

All in all, from Nuada Airgetlam (silver hand) to Conn Cetchathach (of the Hundred Battles) to Eochaid Mugmedon (Slave Lord) to Elim Oillfinshneachta (Snow that tasted of wine) to Finnachta Fleadhach (the festive) Bye Names are just good clean fun.

Write me down as a yeah vote on renewing this tradition.

LSO

Little enough of what I’ve been able to assemble on these pages so far has any basis in the reality of Earth.  I have bent my will and my efforts toward Tir na Nua. 

That is not to say that there are no mythic figures worth looking into.  In Ireland the line between myth and reality is as thin as the line between the living and dead at Samhain.  There are figures, men and women, who bridge the gap between the real and the fantastic.  Whether they approached such legendary status in life is open to debate, but some few have attained it in memory, in lore.

One such real figure is Niall of the Nine Hostages (Noigiallach).  If nothing else, this particular Niall’s story had much to do with my later fascination with things Celtic.  Niall, it appears, was a king and so fixed in memory and genetics that many count him among their progenitors and as many as twenty-five percent of folk in the North of Ireland, and their descendants whether they know it or not, seem marked by his genetics, True Story.

You can read a little more about The Niall Nine Hostages That Was and a little less about me.

I discovered my association on the back of a clan tie at a highland games in Gresham Oregon.  Again, true story.  I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned how I first came across bagpipe music in a small high-school radio station in North Dakota.  I played “Mul of Kintyre“, by Paul McCartney and the Wings every day for the rest of that semester.  But I discovered IT again on a summer day in Oregon when it came through my window and lured me into another world.

Certainly it was different from the run-of-the-mill day in Gresham Oregon, different than North Dakota too.  But the music drew me to the event and the event led me to a small blurb on the back of a MacNeill clan tie.  There I first read anything at all about Niall Noigiallach. 

With only a very few little words on a bit of paper the writer chose to mention this fellow, Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland.  Obviously, it was effective marketing, I bought the tie along with some bagpipe music and a banger. 

Truth to tell, though the O’Neills and the MacNeills both have Niall Noigiallach as a progenitor, they are really named after Niall Glundub (Black Knee).  Still, selling ties is easier with Noigiallach than the closer relative Glundub.  I’ve got to forgive the inaccuracy for its impact.

But that is not even near the end of the story.  No dear reader, looking into Niall exposed me to such wonders as a genealogy that stretched back (thanks to dutiful monk scribes) past Noah to Adam himself.  I learned that legend names a grand-daughter of Noah as the leader of the first settlement on the Emerald Isle.  I ran across names like Nuada Silver Hand, and Finn MacCool, and Conn of the Hundred Battles. 

Recently I found links through geneologies back to those three notables in Legend to my heritage (fictional or not).  Isn’t that a wonder?  All this found through Niall Noigiallach.  True Story.

LSO

The Occupations of the Losterlies

What led to the conditions at the time of “The Man Who Forgot Himself.”

The first folk to come to the Losterlies were probably the Grey Elves. In their wanderings they became aware of it, used it as a shelter, and for provision, but one can not rule out the Fomorians as possible first arrivals. The Grey Elves, it can not be denied, certainly used the isles, stored cache’s in it, and used them, sometimes even wintering over on rare occasions. It is therefore safe to conclude that they were the first residents no matter how brief the occupations. *Considering their longevity there might be a written record or even living memory of Grey Elf occupation.*

A ship’s company of Wanderers, folk related to the Grey Elves but not long lived, are known to have been ship wrecked with a cargo of items including live goods from the far South, among these are a small species of Alpaca, potato, certain peppers, yams, and other tropical fare, many of these things did not and do not thrive in the climate of the Losterlies, but the wanderers have made the best of the available genetics, breeding things to the conditions and finding volcanically created micro climates that have allowed these stocks to be cultivated if only to preserve them and for very limited, sometimes medicinal, use. However some of these experiments in botany and animal husbandry have succeeded well enough to gift the islands with a unique and particularly favorably diverse and rich flora and fauna. The Wanderers have added these and continue to husband others in their mountain micro-climates. They continue a semi-nomadic lifestyle despite being limited to the Losterlies. They seem to prefer the mountains and seclusion coming out to trade their biologicals and crafts for the things that make their lives better.

It is a company of Grey Elves that tell Seabrooke about the Losterlies and they find and establish a colony in the sheltered bay of the main island. Though the going is difficult the group survives and begins to establish a strong presence. As soon as survival seems assured, a crew member, Calvin, begins to cause trouble. When the boat that bears them to the isle is no-longer needed for survival, Calvin takes charge of it and moved with a couple supporters and their families to the Northeastern side and establishes a separate village focused more on fishing and the sea.

The Coming of the Laird and the Celtic Overlay on the Seabrook Base

Despite numerous Fomorian raids over the years and the occasional interaction with the Gypsies, the Seabrook colony remains largely homogeneous until it is overwhelmed by a Celtic invasion. Initially the overlord Celts maintain a highly bifurcated population, but in just a few generations the two halves begin to integrate.

Homogenizing the Population

Defending against a wave of Fomorian attacks unifies the island in two (2) ways. 1) Working and fighting together is a great leveler and 2) the Fomorian wave isolates the island from greater Oceanic Celtia–Celtia contracts leaving the Losterlies isolated, embattled, and with these shakings the island’s population begins to homogenize. the survivors value their co-survivors and come out of the battle as islanders together. Celtia forgets them and the Folk of the Island become a people. Their is still a Laird and a Tanist, but Tanistry reaches deep into the community and by the time of “The Man Who Forgot Himself” it reaches across race, occupation, and even surname.

Initially, in the first generation, Capt. Seabrooke sought to keep the colony together in the one village, but Calvin’s defection, Fomorian attack, Celtic overlordship, Gypsie influence, intermitant growing and contracting population, trade, and even the Skellig Monastry all work to spread out the population.

Probably the biggest factor was the periodic Fomorian incursions. The benefits of having some resources decentralized and some population base to at least have a place to flee to, became apparent when Brookton was attacked by the Fomorian sea raiders for the first time.

Landmarks and Works of Man

The Celts build a stone ring fort, stripping the village surrounding fields of their walls. As agriculture moves up the valley and around the lake, crannogs are built for defense. There is a narrowing of the river bed that leads from the lake so it is a natural defensive point that the colony fortifies and the Celts improve making a stone stronghold between Brookton and the Lake region.

The Separatists use the black stone (basalt) of the North Shore in all their buildings and after the first Fomor attack they create a tightly organized village with narrow corridors, blind corners and various defensive strong points and escape routes, it becomes known as Blackwarren.

The southside of the island relies on poor moorage and remoteness for its safety. This is particularily true of the Skellig Monastry. The coast is very rugged. Even if a safe landing is made on the narrow beaches, raiders face a difficult climb up cliffs to reach the widely spaced farms and a long hike further into the interior to two or three settlements any larger than a single extended family compound.

The last act of the heroic heyday of the Losterlies was a pitched battle against a large Fomorian raid. In it the Celts are aided by both the “native peasantry” and the mysterious Wanderers. There is much death and destruction AND volcanic eruptions add to the chaos.

Harvests are poor for years after–the population dwindles–the Losterlies are forgotten and they too forget, focusing on survival again through the lean times. Volcanism in the Losterlies is only the local manifestation of world wide disasters and a much less generous climate — the Losterlies are spared the wars over diminishing resources. War with Fomorian raiders reduced the population already and the survivors used an infrastructure and an agricultural base built for a larger population. The living was hard and there were technological losses, but starvation was not a great concern.

So it is that a healthy and somewhat happy population of Celtoseabrookians is filling out the loose garment of the earlier golden days. There is much hope for progress, indeed this typifies the population, that they are eager for gain and not afraid of hard work to reach it. Trade has recently been re-established within the last 3 or 4 generations and young men have sought glory fighting for Celtic Kings in distant lands — The Oceanic Celtic world is the big city to the Losterlies village farm.