Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



explained as " dark-blue " from an Esthonian 

 word. Tara's hill in Meath with its royal 

 town, said to have been there in Saint Patrick's 

 day, is strangely like Taara's hill in Esthland, 

 where Kalev's son founded a city over the 

 tomb of his reputed father. The Tuatha de 

 Danann, that people of the misty Druidical 

 Irish past, famous for their knowledge of 

 metal- and magic-making, receive a lurid light 

 from the under-world when considered to 

 mean " Folk of the Dark Gods " not " Folk 

 of the Two Dananns." They are the Tonn, 

 Tonni of the Esthonians, spirits whose im- 

 ages were used in witchcraft, the Tonndi of 

 the Finns, kobolds and devils, denizens of 

 Tuonela the under-world. But their pleasant 

 traits show that they escaped the damning of 

 Christian teachers, who always sought to de- 

 grade the heathen upper gods to evil spirits 

 and the gods of the under-world to the 

 depths of brimstone and hell-fire. And the 

 Fir-bolgs, another mysterious race, over whose 



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