magicians of Erinn: they were, in fact, mere personifications of the evil powers of nature. Keating[1] derives the name of the Gailióin from gái, 'a spear,' the ancient gaesum, and this etymology is the explanation of their name being rendered Viri Armorum in the Irish version of Nennius.[2] Further, their fellow-foreigners the Laighin, whose existence seems entirely based on the name of Leinster, for Lagin-setr (in Irish Lagin or Laighin), had an appellation of similar meaning,[3] as lagen meant a spear; but the coincidence which would make the same province successively bear two names referring equally to spears and spearmen of foreign origin is a little too much to pass; but Lagin, the genuine name, has probably been the means of fixing in connection with Leinster the other name Gailióin, which may be said to consist of an unfortunate contribution from the classics by an early pedant whose name is deservedly lost in oblivion.[4]
- ↑ Pp. 100-1.
- ↑ Pp. 44-5.
- ↑ Bk. of Leinster, p. 159a.
- ↑ One is put on the right track of the history of the term Gailióin in the Irish version of Nennius (pp. 130-1), where the Cruithni or Picts are traced to Scythia, on the strength partly of the similarity of sound between Scotti and Scythia, and partly of such lines in the Georgics of Vergil as ij. 114-5:
'Aspice et extremis domitum cultoribus orbem,
Eoasque domus Arabum, pictosque Gelonos.'Or iij. 461-3:
'Bisaltae quo more solent, acerque Gelonus,
Quum fugit in Rhodopen, atque in deserta Getarum,
Et lac concretum cum sanguine potat equino.'In the Nennian passage, Gelonus son of Hercules by Echidna becomes Geleón mac Ercoil, and the Picts appear as his offspring. Having begun their wanderings, they reach Gaul, where they build a city called Pictava, now Poictiers, and in due time they reach Erinn, landing at the mouth of the Slaney at Wexford (Ir. Nen. pp. 122-3, 134-5), where
