Snorri Sturluson and the Vôluspâ report a memorable confrontation between Aesir and Vanes, which would have ended in an exchange of hostages (Kvasir [Njördr in another version] on the part of the Vanes, Hoenir and Mimir for the Aesir) and by peace. According to Vôluspâ, a magician, Gullveig (“Golden Drunkenness”, a name which could then refer to greed), would be the cause of this war.
Is it a confrontation between two different tribes, in the 1st millennium BC, a conflict between two layers of the same society, or even a ritual brawl, attested in other cultures? , intended to cement the unity of a given civilization? This myth, very little documented, has greatly intrigued researchers. A historical interpretation is that the Indo-Europeans (Ases?) confronted the natives (Vapes?) to impose their law - without success -, hence the modus vivendi adopted:we can indeed discern in the Nordic religion and mythology ancient two strata which would go back to two different cultures. According to G. Dumézil and other authors, this war would be a symbol of the opposition between the caste of warriors and the class of peasants adepts of magic, and peace concluded the sine qua non for the implementation of a structured society. The battles for the domination of Ireland - the Fir Bolg and the Fomoiré
In establishing their sovereignty over Ireland, the Tûatha Dé Dânann had to fight two formidable groups of creatures, each of which played a decisive role in shaping the "history" of the island. The last invaders, those who had dislodged the Thûata Dé, were the Fir Bolg, a mythical pre-Celtic people who doubtless owed their name to the god Builg. The Thûata Dé defeated the Fir Bolg in the First Battle of Mag Tured and forced them into exile in the Aran Islands, where they are said to have built the massive fort of Dun Aonghusa on Inishmore. There is a tradition that the Tûatha Dé allowed the Fir Bolg to keep the province of Connaught. It was at Mag Tured that Nûada lost his arm.
The second group that the Tûatha Dé Dânann had to face were the Fomoiré (the demons below), a demonic race which resided permanently in Ireland, whom Partholon had already encountered when invading the island and whom he had fought in the first battle of Ireland. When the Tûatha Dé occupied the country, the Fomoiré began to harass them relentlessly, plundering their territory and overwhelming them with taxes, inflicting terrifying punishments on those who refused to comply. The Fomoiré had at their head a formidable chief, Balor (A squalid eye), endowed with a unique and enormous eye which instantly killed anyone who stared at it and which no weapon could kill. Balor lived on Tory Island, where he lived in constant fear of seeing a prophecy come true that he would die by the hand of his grandson. Despite her efforts to delay this end by keeping her daughter, Ethne, away from men, she became pregnant and gave birth to triplets. Balor threw them into the sea, but one of them survived:it was Lug, himself a half-Fomoiré, who finally led the Tûatha Dé into battle against the Fomoiré and killed Balor himself. of sling in the eye.
Like the Tûatha Dé, the Fomoiré are a divine race. Balor embodies the negative forces of evil, the power of which can only be held in check by the light force of Lug, himself a relative of Balor. The Tûatha Dé and the Fomoiré are perhaps the archetype of the dualism between the forces of light and the chthonic forces (that is to say, linked to the earth or the underworld), a source of conflict but also of dependence. reciprocal. This dimension is attested by the ancestry of Lug and by the agricultural practices of the Fomoiré, essential to the well-being of the Tûatha Dé nanann.