Bresil/Brazil

Storks on the Amazon by Ciara Savage

Google the origins of the name of Brazil and you will see a concensus that it is named after the nuts. There is one possible origin that traces its lineage much further. This story goes back to the days of the Fir Bolg, the legendary bog dwellers who inhabited Ireland before the equally mythical De Danann.

Goll

One Fir Bolg in particular is of interest. Goll was a giant demi-god with links to the underworld (hell to you and me) who spent his days ferrying soil from Ireland to Greece. He found fame as a recurring opponent to Finn MacCumhaill.

Carnival by Ciara Savage

Banished

Eventually Finn beat Goll all the way to the western-most point of Ireland where Goll perched on a rocky crag (we can assume this to be Dun Aonghusa (Photos of the fort) or the Black Fort (Photos of this fort). Either way, we are told that wave after wave of warriors attacked until Goll had slain 3000 men.

Rather than eat the bodies of the men he had killed and drown his thirst in his wife’s breast milk (her suggestion apparently), he strips off and enters the ocean in a final act of reversed birth.

Brazil

So what does this have to do with the country that is the world’s greatest coffee producer? There is a tradition in Connacht that Goll went to an island named after Bres (pronounced “Bresh”) son of Eriu (after whom ireland is named and pronounced “Erroo”). Bresil was therefore thought to be ethereal – a place that was neither land nor sea to the southwest of Ireland. Every seven years it was believed that the land could be seen temporarily. In this mythological context it has often been referred to as Hy Brazil.There are even accounts of people landing on it. Hmmm…

Rio de Janeiro by Ciara Savage

Bibliography
Mythic Ireland, Michael Dames, Thames and Hudson, 1992

This article was posted by Ronan McDonnell on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 03:41.
It is archived in History, Ireland, Myth and tagged Brazil, History, Ireland, Myth, Myths, South America.

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