Danu (Irish goddess)


In Irish mythology, Danu is a hypothetical mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Though primarily seen as an ancestral figure, some Victorian sources also associate her with the land.

Name

The hypothetical nominative form of the name, *Danu, is not found in any medieval Irish text, but is rather a reconstruction by modern scholars based on the genitive Danann, which is the only form attested in the primary sources. In Irish mythology, Anu is a goddess. She may be a goddess in her own right or an alternate name for Danu.
The etymology of the name has been a matter of much debate since the 19th century, with some earlier scholars favoring a link with the Vedic water goddess Danu, whose name is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰenh₂- "to run, to flow", which may also lie behind the ancient name for the river Danube, Danuuius – perhaps of Celtic origin, though it is also possible that it is an early Scythian loanword in Celtic.
Linguist Eric Hamp rejects the traditional etymologies in his 2002 examination of the name Danu and proposes instead that *Danu is derived from the same root as Latin bonus, from Proto-Indo-European *dueno- "good", via a Proto-Celtic nominative singular n-stem *Duonū.

In mythology

Danu has no myths or legends associated with her in any surviving medieval Irish texts.
She has possible parallels with the Welsh literary figure Dôn, whom most modern scholars regarded as a mythological mother goddess in the medieval tales of the Mabinogion. However, Dôn's gender is never specified in the tales and was regarded as a man by some medieval Welsh antiquarians.
The closest figure in Irish texts to a "Danu" would then be Danand, daughter of Delbáeth. In the Lebor Gabála Érenn: The Book of the Taking of Ireland, it is noted the Tuatha Dé Danann get their name from the three sons of Danand: Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba. These three are known as the "Gods of Dannan." However, Cormac's Glossary, a text that predates the Lebor Gabala Erenn, names the goddess Anu as the mother of the gods. Danu and Anu are often described as being the same figure by various sources.