Teutates

Gaulish god likened to Mercury by Caesar. The root of the name is retained in Irish, Welsh, and Breton and signifies “the people.” It is argued that it was the Celts who designated the Germanic people crowding on their eastern borders as “the people,” or Teutons, which name has survived as a designation for any speaker of a Germanic language. Teutates was therefore thought to be a “tribal god.” The Gauls, says Caesar, “regard him as the inventor of all the arts, the god who directs men upon their journeys and their most powerful helper in trading and getting money.”

Teyrnon

[W] Lord of Gwent Is-Coed. He always releases the colt that his mare foals on Beltaine, May Eve. Keeping watch, he sees a great claw come through the stable window and seize the newborn colt. He strikes off the claw with his sword and then rushes out. He fails to see anything, but on his return to the stable he finds that a child, in swaddling clothes, has been left at the door. He and his wife bring up the child as their own son. Later they learn the child is the son of Pwyll and Rhiannon and return it. The boy is named Pryderi.

The name Teyrnon is also given as Ternan but refers to a sixth century Christian missionary to the Picts and is thought to be one and the same with the Cornish St. Erney, whose name is remembered at St. Erney near St. Germans and also at North Hill east of Bodmin Moor, where the name is recorded as St. Torney. Teyrnon and other early Celtic Christian saints are frequently mixed up with mythological characters.

Three, Significance of

See Triads.

Tigernmas

[I] “Lord of death.” Son of Follach. A High King who is said to have introduced the worship of an idol called Cromm Cruach (Blood Crescent), which involved human sacrifice at the feast of Samhain. Tigernmas was slain during the frenzied worship of the idol.

Tiobraide Tireach

[I] An Ulster king who slew Conn of the Hundred Battles.

Tír

[I] The Irish word for “land” or “country.”

Tlachtga

[I] A goddess who is also the daughter of the druid Mug Ruith of Munster. She produced three sons by different fathers at one birth and died in the process. She gave her name to the Hill of Tlachtga, now the Hill of Ward, Co. Meath, which is associated with the Samhain Festival.

Tobar

The Irish word for “well.” See Wells.