Erdathe
The end times present a large part of religion, often when a faith concerns itself with the end of the world entire traditions and beliefs can spawn from it. This is true in the most popular example of Judgment Day, whether it be in Islam, Judaism or Christianity Apocalyptic traditions and texts seem to represent a point of major study. Even outside of those stories, the end times are often represented heavily amongst other beliefs and myths, such as the stark popularity of Ragnarok in the Norse traditions.
This is true as well, it may seem, for the Celtic and Gaelic tradition. Popularly called Erdathe it has been a point of study and contention amongst scholars as the beliefs of the event are no less mysterious than the word itself. It is then the hope of this work to not just prove Erdathe as apart of Gaelic belief but to discuss how it is to occur and the events that may have taken place.
To begin with, one must prove Erdathe really exists. We gain the name Erdathe from Tirechan most famously in his description of the confrontation between High King Loegaire and Saint Patrick:
‘And he proceeded again to the city of Tara to Loíguire son of Níall, because he made a pact with him that he should not be killed within his realm; but (Loíguire) could not accept the faith, saying: 'My father Níall did not allow me to accept the faith, but bade me to be buried on the ridges of Tara, I son of Níall and the sons of Dúnlang in Maistiu in Mag Liphi, face to face (with each other) in the manner of men at war' (for the pagans, armed in their tombs, have their weapons ready) until the day of erdathe (as the magi call it, that is, the day of the Lord's judgement), because of such fierceness of our (mutual) hatred.' (Tirechan, Book of Armagh, Folio 10).
From this we can not only see evidence of this belief being amongst the pagans of Ireland and its importance, it being the sole reason why High King Loegaire refused to convert to Christianity, but also, it’s association with the Druids. As druids were called Magi in Latin Christian texts. Before this can expounded upon, there is a second reference we must look at from another Irish Patrician text:
‘He came to the spring of Findmag which is called Slan, because he was told that the druids honoured that spring and sacrificed gifts to it as if were a god. It was a four-sided spring, and there was a four sided stone in the spring’s mouth; and the water came over the stone, that is, through the mortar, like a royal road. And the unbelievers said that a certain deceased prophet made a casket for himself in the water beneath the stone, so that his bones could whiten forever, for he feared the burning of fire’ (Bieler, Patrician texts, p. 152).
This is also connected to, what is likely a druid, here called a prophet, and the use of sacred waters as a protection against fires. This then recalls a quote from Strabo in regards to the issue of Druidic Belief:
'Both the druids and others assert that both the soul and the world are indestructible, but that sometimes fire and sometimes water have overwhelmed them.' (Strabo, Geography, 4.4.4).
Here again a belief in the end times is associated with Druidic teachings and specifies the coming of water and fire ‘overwhelming’ the world. However, this does not seem to be a permanent event as the world is still indestructible, leading a theoretical belief that the world goes through destruction and renewal, fire and water being the agents of this destruction.
There are further several instances of Celts possibly describing the end times by the common triad of the Sky falling, the seas rising and the Earth Shaking. This can be seen in several ages, including the age of Alexander, as seen below:
‘We fear no man: there is but one thing that we fear, namely, that the sky should fall on us’ (Arrian, Anabasis 1-2).
Also present is another quote to Alexander which covers more the triadic nature of the destruction of the world.
‘”If we observe not this engagement," they said, "may the sky fall on us and crush us, may the earth gape and swallow us up, may the sea burst out and overwhelm us."’
This is further backed by Gaelic examples from the Tain Bo where Sualtaim desperately begs the Ulstermen to assist his son Cu Chulainn who was fighting off the armies of Medb during the cattle raid.:
‘Is it the sky that cracks or the sea that ebbs or the earth that splits open or is it the distress of my son against the odds of the Foray of Cuailgne?’ (Tain Bo).
"Heaven is above us, and earth beneath us, and the sea is round about us. Unless the sky shall fall with its showers of stars on the ground where we are camped, or unless the earth shall be rent by an earthquake) or unless the waves of the blue sea come over the forests of the living world, we shall not give ground." (Tain Bo).
There are some arguments against this, however John Carey has already covered and dismissed most of these. As such this paper will only briefly cover some of the criticism and how Carey has argued against them.
Firstly, there is the accusation of the quote of Strabo, who was a stoic, being fabricated to claim the universality of Stoicism or to further increase the story of the Druids as barbarian philosophers amongst Greek readers, as there is a similar Stoic belief. However, as was pointed out, Strabo’s source was Posidonius whose vivid descriptions of human sacrifice placed him firmly in the camp of the Celts being savages and further, Strabo does not comment upon this strange coincidence, which one would expect amongst polemic authors (John Carey, Saint Patrick, the Druids, and the End of the World, p.45-46).
There is further the issue of Tirechan making up the word Erdathe to make a Christian polemic with Druidic thought, however this too can be dismissed as if this was so then Tirechan would’ve likely not used a word so mysterious and obscure as Erdathe (John Carey, Saint Patrick, the Druids, and the End of the World, p.44). The meaning of Erdathe will be further covered by the paper.
A final question on the issue of the reality of Erdathe must be posed, if this belief did not exist then why is it that ever so convenient that the end times have successfully fit a similar description? The story of the prophet of the spring fits so well with Strabo’s account, although the latter likely not having affect on the Patrician life? I find this to be the most compelling argument to the reality of the belief.
There is however another point to touch upon, that being the association between this belief and Saint Patrick. Both Vernacular quotes occurring in Patrician lives and the word Erdathe first being spoken to the Saint by the High King himself, this association may not be entirely accidental. It is remarked that the Saint had a focus with Judgment and Eschatology and that, as John Carey theorised, the use of the end times to convert pagans, as is quoted from his own study:
‘I suggest that in obtaining this special grace (That being the destruction of Ireland before the horrors of Judgment unfolds) for his new converts, Patrick may have been imagined to be providing a rather unorthodox alleviation to fears already firmly rooted in the worldview of Irish paganism: with such a promise, he would have been able to offer his audience something they already knew they wanted’ (John Carey, Saint Patrick, the Druids, and the End of the World, p.48).
As such, it is my belief that the beliefs of Erdathe were especially remarked upon with Patrick because of his general emphasis on destruction. Perhaps comparing somewhat, the pagan Erdathe with that of Christian judgment.
Now that the issue of its reality has been covered, the next issue to be covered is its etymology. Erdathe is a mysterious word, the difficulty in its etymology is what in part leads to the conclusion that Tirechan did not invent it, however there are a few attempts at etymology available to comparison:
One popular study, examining the manuscript itself evaluates the issue of whether the word is spelt Ardathe instead of Erdathe. With this they were able to construct an etymology of Ardathe coming from Ard meaning a height and the word athe which comings from words such as ath meaning ford or crossing which occurs in Irish epics such as the Tain Bo as places of battle, referring perhaps to the otherworld. Then the word Erdathe refers instead of an exact judgment to a form of afterlife, where Loegaire will do battle against his enemies once again (Atlantic Religion, ‘Erdathe’ – The Atlantic Religion’s Day of Judgment?).
However, there are issues with this conclusion, the most prominent is that Loegaire does not describe Erdathe as a place, Tirechan specifies it as ‘The Day of Erdathe’. This obviously goes to discount this theory of Erdathe being in reference to an afterlife or other physical or spiritual place.
There is further the appearance of ‘Erdath’ in an earlier text, The Monastery of Tallaght, this uses the word to refer to festivities. However, this can also be dismissed based on the work of Jacopo Bisangi, where he remarks on the constant use of strange spelling for Phonetic Irish and concludes that Erdath is instead one of these spellings for the word ‘Airtach’ which better fits the manuscript (Jacopo Bisangi, A note on the end of the world: Tirechan’s dies erdathe, p.16).
Instead, he proposes a different etymology, in which he divides the words into er-, an intensive force and the word dath. Here he traces the word dath to Indo-European *dhueh meaning to make smoke, which he traces first to Proto-Celtic -Dua-tu to reconstructed Primitive Irish *-Dha-thu to Irish erdath, going into more rules of the language then this paper does (Jacopo Bisangi, A note on the end of the world: Tirechan’s dies erdathe, p.31-14). From this we get the possible meaning of ‘The day of (The) Great Smoke/Steam’ or even the day of ‘The Day of the Final Smoke/Steam’ (Jacopo Bisangi, A note on the end of the world: Tirechan’s dies erdathe, p.15).
This etymology fits more snuggly with the already described passages of the coming of great fires that scared prophets and their destruction of the world, specifically associated with the Druidic class.
With this we can begin to see an outline of events forming, the most prominent being the world being overtaken by fire. As described by both Strabo, the etymology of the name and the Irish story of the prophet of the spring. However, there seems to have been a prelude to the coming of Erdathe that was seen amongst the people of the world, as prophesised by the Morrigan:
‘I shall not see a world that will be dear to me.
Summer without flowers,
Kine will be without milk,
Women without modesty,
Men without valour,
Captures without a king.
Woods without mast,
Sea without produce,
Wrong judgments of old men,
False precedents of brehons,
Every many a betrayer,
Every boy a reaver,
Son will enter his father’s bed,
Father will enter his son’s bed,
Everyone will be his brother’s brother-in-law
An evil time!
Son will deceive his father,
Daughter will deceive her mother.’
(The Second Battle of Magh Tuired, p.111).
This issue of Moral decline seems to mimic that of Ragnarok and there have been theories connecting the two events. Most directly was Hilda Davidson, who directly compares the prophecy of Badb with that of the Voluspa (Hilda Davidson, Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe, Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions, p.193).
Further, across the chapter the second battle of Magh Tuired is compared with that of Ragnarok, including the theme of the Betrayal of Bres and Loki and the similarities in the fighting between Thor and An Dagda and Odin and Lugh (Hilda Davidson, Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe, Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions, p.193).
The theme of the gods taking warriors for this eventual battle has also been theorised to occur with the death of Cu Chulainn. Which was further tied with theories around the binding of Fenrir and the connection between Odin and wolves to further present a picture of the war of Erdathe (Phillip Bernhardt-House, Binding the Wolf, Leashing the Hound: Canid Eschatologies in Irish and Norse Myth, p.14).
It has been further theorised by popular source that the Second Battle of Magh Tuired may either be a combination of the original second battle and a third battle that was to take place at the end of the world or that the Second Battle is originally the end times battle that had its chronology changed to fit with Christian narratives. All of the deaths of gods that are otherwise present (Nuada, An Dagda, etc.) instead occurring in this third mythical battle (Fortress of Lugh, Ragnarok: Norse & Celtic Myth of Destruction).
The issue of the Fomori may also be involved with the description of the seas rising up onto land. The Fomorians, whose name may mean ‘Undersea’ could be represented as coming unto land by the story of the sea rising during this catastrophe. Further the Otherworld was often thought of as existing underneath the waters with lakes, wells and the sea often representing a barrier between this world and the other world. The sea rising could also represent the violent uniting of this world the supernatural, adding to the chaos of the event unfolding.
The sea is also of special focus for Saint Patrick, the exact agreement with God being that seven years before the day of Judgment, to spare Ireland of the suffering that will occur, God will send waves to wipe out the population (John Carey, Saint Patrick, the Druids, and the End of the World, p.48). Carey points to this under a Christian context, however there is an alternative explanation from the pagan point of view.
Since the sea can be used to represent the Otherworld, the deluge wiping out Humanity could be interpreted as, instead of wiping out humanity, transporting them to the Otherworld, which was widely considered a paradise. In this manner the pagan context of the oath of Saint Patrick could be agreeing to send the Irish to the paradise of the Otherworld instead of letting the fires consume them in the destruction of the world. This would further relate to the story of the Prophet in the Spring, hiding from the destruction of the world by burying his bones in a sacred spring, what would’ve been considered a portal to the otherworld.
After the destruction of the world, it was thought that they would be a new one, this can be gleaned both from the quote of Strabo about the immortality of the world and the myth of Ragnarok. It was thought that either the world would be made a new with the return of the gods and humanity to the world to begin a new cycle with new gods (Hilda Ellis Davidson, Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe, Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions p.194) or that after, atleast for a short period the new world would be a golden age, ruled by Lugh (Fortress of Lugh, Ragnarok, Norse & Celtic Myth of Destruction).
So, to gather everything into one tradition, Erdathe begins with moral and environmental decline as prophesised by Morrigan. This includes the fertility and the production of the land, the breaking apart of family traditions and a general death in animals.
Then the sea may sweep unto the land and take mankind to the otherworld and/or leave the Fomorians unto the Earth. This causes the general destruction of things, the sky will fall, the Earth will crack, and the waters will rise, possibly swallowing all the land. Here the gods will do battle with the Fomorians in one, climatic Ragnarok of the Celts that may have been recorded in the Cath Magh Tuired.
Then, either the gods win, and a golden age is begun until its eventual destruction or the world will be consumed by fire and those not in the Otherworld will be destroyed. The Otherworld may also be destroyed. After this the world begins again or the golden age occurs at this time instead.
Bibligoraphy
John Carey, Saint Patrick, the Druids, and the End of the World, University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Strabo, Geography, Perseus digital Library.
Atlantic Religion, ‘Erdathe’ – The Atlantic religion’s ‘Day of Judgment?’, 2014.
Jacopo Bisangi, A note on the end of the world: Tirechan’s dies erdathe, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, 2011.
Unknown, The Second battle of Magh Tuired (Whitely Stokes, trans), Celtic.ucc
Hilda Ellis Davidson, Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe, Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions, Manchester University Press, 1988.
Phillip Bernhardt-House, Binding the Wolf, Leashing the Hound: Canid Eschatologies in Irish and Norse Myth, Studia Celtica Fennica, 2017.
Unknown, Tain Bo Cualnge from the Book of Leinster, Celtic.ucc
Fortress of Lugh, Ragnarok: Norse & Celtic Myth of Destruction, Youtube,