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Although a couple of reference works give family trees for the Welsh gods (DK, R),  I have never seen a family tree that showed all the relationships among the prominent gods of the Irish pantheon, the Tuatha Dé Danann. I started keeping track of the relationships I could find, and the result is the following incomplete and somewhat inconsistent set of tables. Note that

The following are the tables stemming from the eldest known ancestor in each line:

If anyone has additions or corrections to suggest, please contact me at jfm.baharna@gmail.com.

Danu and Bile E21
Danu's unamed husband, by British analogy, is assumed to be Bile S51
Danu also known as Brigit R103

Peter Berresford Ellis, in E, has attempted a reconstruction of the lost creation myth of the Celts, in which at the beginning of time, Danu, together with the primal oak Bile, gives birth to Brigid and the Dagda, who then mate and give birth to many others. Charles Squire, in S,  has also suggested that Danu's husband ought to be Bile by analogy with Welsh mythology (since many of the Irish gods have counterparts in Welsh myth). These ideas are speculative and should be treated with caution.

Eithne  MK310
Daughter of Balor, a Fomor MK155.
Sometimes MK155 said to be the mother (by Elatha, a Fomorian king), of :

Sometimes MK155 said to be the mother of several children by Cian.

Unspecified Parents
The following are said to be brothers in one version of the invasion of Ireland MK228:

Neit
A war god
Marries Badb N and/or Nemain (the two may be the same) MK303
Neit fathers MK228:

Neit's grandchildren include:

The Dagda
The Good God
Sometimes viewed as the son of Eithne
Sometimes said to be the son of Neit
Speculated by Ellis to be son of Danu and Bile E21
By unspecified wives/consorts, the Dagda fathers:

The Dagda, by a wife with three names Breng, Meng, and Meabel DK54-55,DK99, fathers:

  • Ruadan N, DSB352

The Dagda, by an unspecified wife fathers N:

The Dagda, with Boand, fathers Angus Oc. 

The Dagda mates with the Morrigan, but no offspring are recorded.

Boand
Marries Nechtan, a river god N (son of Labriad ECW17), who may be the same as Nuadu Airgetlam MK302
Marries Elcmar of Bruig no Boinde G39
By liaison with the Dagda, bears: N

Angus Oc also fathers:

Lir
Fathers

Mannanan is foster-father to Lugh  AIT51

Lir marries Aeb and by her, fathers N:

Lir later marries Aife.

Ernmas  MK297-298
Goddess who gave birth to the following daughters, collectively known as Morrigna (note the spelling difference from Morrigan; this is not a typo).
These are also said to be daughters of the Cailitin, a Druid MK61.

In some versions, there are these additional sisters:

Ernmas also gave birth to

Cainte
God of Speech E27

 

Ailill Aulomm
Brother of Lugaid Laga MK8
Fathers:

Foster-father of

 

Conn Cetchathach
Fathers:

By a fairy woman, Conn also fathers MK91:

Conn was later a consort of Be Chuma MK22

Tuirbe Tragmar
The axe-thrower

 

Luachad
Father of:  MK270

Bibliography of Sources

In the preceding tables, the sources are represented by short abbreviations, following in some cases by page numbers. For example, DK55 refers to page 55 of the Michael Dixon-Kennedy book listed below.

AIT = Tom P. Cross and Clark Harris Slover, Ancient Irish Tales. Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 1996. Reprint of 1936 edition.

DK = Michael Dixon-Kennedy, Celtic Myth & Legend: An A-Z of People and Places. Blandford (a Cassell Imprint), London, 1999.

DSB = John Matthews (editor), The Druid Source Book. Blandford (a Cassell Imprint), London, 1997.

E = Peter Berresford Ellis, The Chronicles of the Celts. Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., New York, 1999.

ECW = Caitlin and John Matthews, The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom. Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 1996.

G = Jeffrey Gantz (translator), Early Irish Myths and Sagas. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England (etc.), 1981.

MK = James MacKillop, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1998.

N = Mike Nichols, An Irish Myth Concordance, on the IMBAS website at http://www.imbas.org/irishcon.htm. This is an index to characters and places referenced in Part I of Lady Augusta Gregory's Gods and Fighting Men (which in turn has also been reprinted as Irish Myths and Legends).

R = T. W. Rolleston, Celtic Myths and Legends. Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1990. Reprint of 1917 original.

S = Charles Squire, Celtic Myth and Legend, Poetry and Romance. Newcastle Publishing Co. Inc., 1975. Reprint of 191- edition; first edition was 1905 .

Links to Related Sites

The Ulster Cycle: Heroic Myths and Legends from Ireland. An excellent collection of stories in the cycle centering on Ireland's great, tragically-fated hero Cú Chulainn.

Order of Whiteak. "We are a loose collection of Celtic Reconstructionists, philosophers, and students of Druidry who are concerned with the matter of ethics in the Druidical community and who meet with our peers from time to time to study the Brehon Laws, to search the ancient stories for Celtic tribal values, and to consult our own consciences for the kind of Druid path we envision."

This page is a remote, lonely little offshoot of the Baharna web site.

Photo at top of Irish landscape with tree by Tom Kelly, from Ireland 1998 Calendar.

Send comments to jfm.baharna@gmail.com.

Copyright 1999-2000 by Joseph F. Morales