A Poem About Human Sacrifice
Searles O'Dubhain
searles@summerlands.com
Thu Dec 16 14:52:38 1999
On an e-mail list I responded to some discussionaboutwhether the Druids had ever engaged in human sacrifice.  What I presented surveys the writings that are available through Irish sources:*p**br*In the Dindshenchas on the Fair of Tailti/u there is a reference to a possible human sacrifice that was made by Irish Celts:*p*The three forbidden bloods,*br*Patrick preached therein at the fair,*br*Yoke oxen, and slaying milch cows,*br*Also by him against the burning of the first born.*p*Patrick preached that it was the law*br*That he should not get peace who should do them,*br*As long as Tailte shall be without time of prayer,*br*Though her primitive raths may survive.*p*During the Three Days of Tailti/u, at sunrise*br*I twice invoked Mac Erc*br*The three plagues to remove*br*From Eriu, though it be a woman's command.*p*Their Giall Cerdas (hostages) were brought out;*br*The drowning of the bonds of the violated treaties -*br*To Mac Erc - it was not a cause of shame."*p*There are two other traditional Irish tales associated with human*br*sacrifice,. One is a parallel to the tale of Vortigern's attempted sacrifice*br*of Merlin ( the sacrifice of the spotless youth variety).  The youth is*br*spared by the intervention of a goddess, a riddle involving a cow with two*br*stomachs and the use of the cow for a proxy sacrifice in place of the youth.*br*The other tale is of the deaths of Tighernmas and two thirds of his*br*followers in a ritual frenzy to the Cromm Cruaich. Other than these. There*br*is a mention also of a fourth century CE sacrifice of the hostages of*br*Munster following the death of Fiachra, brother of Niall of the Nine*br*Hostages following a battle with them.  These hostages were buried alive at*br*Fiachra's funeral though no mention is made of whether the sacrifice was a*br*vengeance or an offering.. Another possible case of sacrifice might be seen*br*in the tributes of the young made to the Fomorii at Samhain by the Tuatha*br*De/.*p*I think it's clear that these tales hint at a cult of sacrifice of humans*br*from the earliest of times, though it would appear that such actions were*br*only infrequently done to halt plagues, to restore prosperity or to honor a*br*hero..It also appears that animal sacrifice replaced these human sacrifices*br*in most cases.*p*Searles*p*