Airne Fíngein («Fíngen’s Night-Watch») and in the dinnshenchas, one alliterative poem from which, «Búaid Cuinn, rígróid rogaide…», has not been edited before.
We examined the story of the manifestation of the roads and the trees, which might be seen as a variant of a cosmogonic myth. It is important that the texts do not mention the creation of the roads, the trees and other wonders on the night of Conn’s birth; all of them are found or manifest themselves out of pre-existence in the Otherworld. The five roads and trees of Ireland belong to the same fivefold structure of space in Irish mythology as five provinces and other phenomena. When the roads as well as the five trees manifest themselves from the Otherworld on earth they act as representatives of the divine order on earth. In case of the five sacred trees of Ireland, they were considered by the medieval redactors as the witnesses of the Paradise on earth (just like Eó Mugna in AF is said to be «the son of the tree of Paradise»). As far as one can argue on the basis of our sources, the domestication of space in the discussed mythological texts consists of the process of forming the earthly order following the divine pattern.
As M. Eliade wrote, no human being never chooses any particular place, he just finds it, in other words the sacred space is manifested to a hero. This manifestation does not necessary come from a direct hierophany; sometimes it is performed with the help of a certain traditional technique based on the cosmological system[613]. Our heroes perform this very technique while opening the roads.
As for the time reflected in our plot, we have to stress that the roads and the trees as well as other phenomena are manifested during a limited period of one night. The situation is that the mythological time on this night is condensed and pressed[614], in the same way the mythological space is limited and condensed along the roads: so to say the rules of our mythological game limit both time and space. As a result condensed time and space imply different pattern of actions in them. This condensed time and space is quite characteristic for any cosmogonic myth.
Finally, we have to stress the importance of the concept of knowledge in all the plots that we have examined. There is a term rot imbais «the road of knowledge» found in AF and referring to the river Boyne which is quite similar to the concept of ramut roscadach «the road of roscada» in our alliterative poem. In all our stories it is either the knowledge of the roads and the trees that is revealed to Fíngen by Rothníam and to Amorgein by Fintan or knowledge is revealed on the roads as in Conaire’s story in TBDD.
Another significant aspect of our mythologem is the importance of number in Celtic myth. Five is the number often found in Irish and other Celtic sources. We know of different groups of five phenomena counted in early Irish literature: five provinces, five sacred trees, five hostels, five sages etc. Especially interesting in our case is the parallel with the five sacred trees of Ireland, which also seem to appear on the night of Conn’s birth. Both our main sources, AF and the dindshenchas, contain the story of the five sacred trees. The trees, Eó Mugna or Eó Rossa in AF, manifest themselves out of the magic mist (tria chéo) from the world of pre-existence (síd). The manifestations of these wonders at the same night signified, together with the birth of the new king, the beginning of a new cycle (renovatio seculi). In the Welsh tradition connected with a famous poet Taliesin we find a notion of five trees as well, they are asociated there with knowledge and inspiration. Ceridwen’s cauldron of poetic inspiration is called in the poem Kadeir Taliesin («The Chair of Taliesin») from the Book of Taliesin «the cauldron of five trees» (peir pum6yd)[615].
The place of numbers in mythology is that of a certain numerical code, with which the world is described (or it can be the system of metadescription itself, that is described). Myth explains itself through numbers. In archaic traditions the numbers could have been used in situations marked as sacred or «cosmizing», as in our mythological situation. Thus, numbers become the image of the world and then, the tools of its periodical remanifestation in the cyclical scheme of evolution in order to overcome destructive tendencies. They are the tools of cosmogony or cyclical restoration of cosmic order. The cyclical scheme seems to be present in Celtic mythology (as an integral part of its manifestationalist doctrine).
Cosmogony or cyclical restoration of cosmic order in Irish myth is shown always as manifestation. The manifestationalist perspective is similar to a concept of «constant creation», because the world here is understood as an open system. The manifestation in myth could have been taken as an example of a ritual.
Objects in the mythological thinking are defined as operational («how was it done? how was it named? how has it happened? why? cid búaid? canas ro ainmniged?»). That is why the actual model of the world is inevitably connected with cosmological schemes and with the pseudo-historical tales, which are considered to be precedents, serving as a pattern to be re-enacted in the future just because the patterns of actions in these tales are set in Urzeit. Our mythological and pseudo-historical tale, combines in itself two aspects – diachronic (an account about idealised past) and synchronic (describing idealised present or sometimes future).