Oisíns, Wōdens, and Eshus, Oh My!

A team from Oxford University has discovered that the Celts, Britain’s indigenous people, are descended from a tribe of Iberian fishermen who crossed the Bay of Biscay 6,000 years ago. DNA analysis reveals they have an almost identical genetic “fingerprint” to the inhabitants of coastal regions of Spain, whose own ancestors migrated north between 4,000 and 5,000BC … The majority of people in the British Hibernian Isles are actually descended from the Spanish.

In Irish mythology Míl Espáine (Latin Miles Hispaniae, “Soldier of Hispania”; later pseudo-Latinised as Milesius) is the ancestor of the final inhabitants of Ireland, the “sons of Míl” or Milesians, who represent the Goidelic Celts. His given name was Golam or Galamh. He served as a soldier in Scythia and Egypt, before remembering a prophesy that his descendants would rule Ireland. He set off to the west, getting as far as Iberia (the Roman Hispania) where he fought several battles before dying, never seeing Ireland himself. His wife Scota and his uncle Íth, who had spied Ireland from a tower, sailed to Ireland where Íth was killed by the Tuatha Dé Danann. When his body was brought back to Iberia, Míl’s eight sons and Íth’s nine brothers invaded Ireland and defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann.

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