Geasa:the Ancient Taboos

Geasa. geis, or geas, plural geasa were ancient Celtic taboo. It was seen as a prohibition, if you disregarded some geasa you would be liable to misfortune or ill luck. An example of this is Conari the Great, who was King of Ireland in the first century AD. He unwittingly violated some of his geasa and his kingdom was subject to plunder and rapine before he himself was killed in the sack of Da Derga.

Some geis are interesting. It was prohibited under a geis for anyone to light a fire anywhere round the ancient royal capital of Tara, till the king`s festival fire had been lit. Another ancient geis was for anyone to bring arms into the palace if Tara after sunset.

There were separate geasa imposed on kings. As an example it as a geis for the king of Emain, modern Ulster, to attack alone a wild boar in his den. A restriction obviously placed for the protection of the king. Another geis was that it was prohibited for the king to have a personal blemish. In fact when King Cormac Mac Art lost one of his eyes in an accident he immediately abdicated. Other geis were of a more superstitious nature. The king of Emain, what is now Ulster, was prohibited from listening to the birds of Lough Swilly, or bathe in Lough Foyle on a May Day. If either of the geis where broken he could not become the High King of Tara.

Other interesting geasa concern the king of Ireland. It was forbidden that the sun should shine on him while lying in bed in Ireland, of course this made sure that he was up before sun rise. To me that would be a very hard prohibition. Other geasa that he was subject to are strange. He was not allowed to alight from his chariot or horse on Moy Breagh on a Wednesday; could not cross Moy-Callainn after sunset; incite his horse at Fan-Comair; nor enter North Teffia on a Tuesday; was banned from entering a ship on the Monday after May Day; He could not lead his army across Ath Maighne, which was a ford on the River Inny, on the Tuesday after the 1st of November; and he was prohibited from going around Leinster left-hand-wise under any circumstances. Arn`t these taboos strange, they seem to be very superstitious.

Some individuals imposed their own geasa, as restrictions on there actions or had geasa imposed on them by others with their won consents. A form of self punishments. As examples of these, Fergus Mac Roy, who was the ex-king of Ulster was under geasa not to accept an invitation to a banquet, in other words he had to accept the invitation and go. There was a geis on Finn Mac Cumail, he had to sleep more than nine nights running at Allen. The old Irish hero mentioned many times in the ancient tales of Ireland, Cuculainn, had many geasa imposed on him. One of these forbad him to pass by a cooking fire without turning aside to visit and and taste its contents. Now that sounds like a nice taboo to me. Another one of his geis was he was unable to refuse any man`s challenge to combat.

Geasa were also used to obtain a request. When this request was seen as just and honourable, the person could not refuse without loss of honour and reputation and face. These bans were often stated as "I will place you under heavy geasa, which no champion will break through, to do so and so."

Kings were prohibited under geasa to do any manual or servile work of any kind. This was expressed as he could not employ himself with: "the handle of a shovel, a spade, or a clod-mallet." Failure to obey this geasa would mean the king being downgraded to the level of plebian, or a very low class of society. I suppose this prohibition was designed to protect the dignity of the monarchy. An example of this s quoted when the father of the over king Sweny Menn (AD 614-627), Fiachna, went to view his men ploughing. The chronicler states, by way of apology: "for Fiachna was not at all a king".

Other geasa imposed on kings made it illegal for a king to slaughter and cook an animal such as an ox for food. It was not permitted for a king or a flaith or noble to keep pigs. Swineherds used to feed great herds of pigs in the woods for the kings table. In fact as a king was not permitted to keep pigs, the chief swineherd was held in high honour. This seems quite common in ancient societies, in the Odyssey, the chief swineherd of Ulysses lived in a large house on a farm some distance from the palace. This seems to suggest that there were similarities between ancient cultures.