Gaelic Folklore (36): Lug in France

Lug In France 

From Lug To Mercury

In the text of Gallic Wars, Caesar clearly tells us that the most honored god by the Gauls was regarded as the inventor of all the arts. The conqueror of the Gallic Empire calls this god "Mercury". His aspect as an inventor of all the arts - a trait totally foreign to the Latin Mercury – identify the god as Lug(h)

He was deemed enough important for his name to be given to a great feast celebrated in his honour: The Lugnasad by the ancient Irish people: "Feast of Lug". Modern Lughnasadh (or Lùnasa ), is the root from which derives the Gaelic name for the month of August (Lugnasd). The feast took place in early August and was attended by a large number of people. It lasted until the 19th century, and some localities still celebrate it.

Presence Of The Name Lug In Continental Celtia.

In Spain, an inscription discovered in Pénalba of Villastar is dedicated to Lugus. In the northeast of the same country, in Osma (Old Castile), the ancient city of Tarraconaise, the god is also invoked in the plural form Lugoves. Lugoves , is found also in Avenches, Switzerland, engraved on a limestone. Finally, an inscription to Lugovibus - although uncertain because mutilated – has to be considered, found in Bonn, Germany.

Another element has to be taken into account (which analysts almost ignore constantly): the duly attested existence of Gallo-Roman anthroponymes formed on a root Lug-.

One knows Lugus, in Aies, on a shard;

l.iigius, Narbonne.

Lugetus, name of a potter.

l.ugunx, in ( lentjtiilly, in the Cher, on the a sandstone stele (today exhibited in the Museum of Bourges.

At Bibracte, on a fragment of pottery, the same name is found in abbreviated form Lugur; in the inscriptions, similarly indexed summaries of the gods Gaulish names Albio-rix and CamuLo-rix.

The anthroponym Lugurix  can be compared with that of Lugotorix , name of a Breton chief from the country of Kent, captured by the Romans in 54 B.C., to whom Caesar alludes in The Gallic Wars.

The anthroponym Luguselva, a woman's name recorded in Périgueux; "The one who belongs to the Lug" or "the one who returns to the Lug".

It should be added that, according to Ernest Nègre, one could recognize some of these anthroponymes in today's place names: Ligueil, in Indre-et-Loire, France (Luggogalus , in 774), is said to be an ancient Lugu-oialo , "land of Lugus"; Lue, in Maine-et-Loire ( Lugiacus , in 1060-1082), would go back to a proper name Lugius; Lugon, in  Gironde, would have formed on a form of the proper name Luguni.

All in all, we have a good small contingent of theophoric anthroponymes that reinforce the existence on the territory of Gaul of a cult to the god Lug. They render the fact that place names may have been given by the Gauls as a tribute to this god.

The God Lug In French Place Names.

Lugudunum , "Fortress of the god-Lug", is found in the designation of communes, villages and localities. Among the more recognized - because the best attested to date - are Laon (Aisne), named Lugdunensis, in 549. There is also Lyon (Rhône), called by Strabon “Lougdounon” and by Pliny “Lugdunum”. In addition to these two illustrious toponyms, there is Mont-Laü, the locality of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, formerly Lougdounon, according to Ptolemy (and Lugditnum, in the first Itinerary of Antonin).

Laons (Eure-et-Loir), known in 1250 as Loon , and Louin (Deux-Sèvres), attested as Loono in 1131, could be assimilated to the case of Laon (Aisne), similarly Loon to the same period (XIIth century), and which is an assured Lugdunum. For this last city, we also know the intermediate form Lauduni (in 966); it is found designating other localities. These are:

Laudun (Gard), Laudanum, in 1088;

Loudun (Vienne), Lauduno, on a Merovingian coin, and in 799-800;

Montlauzun (Lot), Lauduno, in 1178; Moulon (Loiret), Lauduni, in 1152;

Monlogis (Cantal), Laudine, in 1206:

Lauzun (Lot-et-Garonne), Lauzuno in the XIIIth century:

 Lion-in-Beauce (Loiret), Lodonensi, in 886:

La Louasse (Cher), Lodun, in 1257; 

Leudon-en-Brie (Seine-et-Marne), Ludon, in 1369:

Lucduno, in 692, and Lodun, in 1237, former manor house on the commune of Parigné-l-Évêque (Sarthe), still attested today by the Bois and the Etangs de Loudon (which may also have given its name to the hamlet(s) of Loudonneau(x), territorium Ledunis, in the 11 th century, on the commune of Saint-Mars-la- Brière, a few kilometers to the north).

It should be noted that some etymologists, while they most often recognize for the second part of these compounds the link with the Gaulish dunum, deny all connection with the god Lug, relating it to anthroponymes. The personal name Laitdo would thus be at the origin of Laons (Eure-et-Loir) and Moulon (Loiret). The name of nobody Laucus would have given birth to Laudun (Gard), Lauzun (Lot-et-Garonne), Loudun (Vienne), Montlauzun (Lot), Monlezun and Monlezun- d' Armagnac (Gers). This is very unlikely.

The God Of Heights

In the various toponyms mentioned, the exclusive association of the name Lugu- with the Gallic - dunum is a characteristic that needs to be questioned. What does it denote?

We have seen, in the study of the vocabulary of the war ( La Gaule des combats, part III, 2 on "The fortresses"), which the appellative dunum, quite widespread in our place names, served to designate strongholds, usually on heights. Indeed, the vast majority of place names from the Lugudunum model correspond to established localities on high sites. These may be plateau’s, as in the case of Laons (Eure-et- Loir), Leudon ( Seine-et-Marne) or Lion-en-Beauce (Loiret). And there are isolated buttes, hillsides or hills: thus in Laudun (Gard), Lauzun (Lot-et-Garonne), Loudon (Sarthe), Loudun (Vienne) and Louin (Deux-Sèvres).

The ancient Irish text of the foundation  of the Domaine of Tara (Suidigud Tellaig Temra) describes Lug as a giant: "We were very surprised by the size of his form. The top of his shoulders was as high as a wood, the sky and the sun were visible between his legs, because of his size and beauty". He therefore had the the size of a mountain. And it is often on mountains or hills that the celebrations in the honour of Lug (Lugnasad) was celebrated in Ireland. We know that the god assimilated to Mercury was honored under the local nickname of DUMIAS at the summit of the Puy de Dome (inscription Mercurio Dumiatï), in a sanctuary where would have been a gigantic statue of him, more than 20 metres high, according to Pliny.

The study of the "Sacred Heights" has made us to know also a dedication to Mercury Voségos ( Mercurio Vos[ego]), proving the link between the god likened to the Roman Mercury and the sacred mountain of the Vosges. Lug (and the others names by which he could be designated) would thus have been a god in relation to predilection with high places. It is not surprising that its divine name is found at the origin of localities corresponding to this type of sites.

The god of fortresses

The Irish Lug is frequently portrayed in ancient mythological tales as a youthful combatant, large in stature - as the previous examples have noted - strong and brave, provided with an invincible spear that he strikes furiously at his opponents. He was thus perceived as a warrior god, a fighting hero. We can see another reason why the theonym Lug is found associated in Lugu- compounds with the term -dunum: the study of the Gauls at war showed that the appellative, if it was linked to heights, in the Celtic language first referred to a military citadel, a stronghold. Put under  the aegis of a fighting god, could these oppida fear the enemy's assault? The names seem to have represented for the Gallic peoples ostentatious witnesses of power, of the declared signs of invincibility against neighboring nations. It is quite remarkable - thing which does not seem to have been observed yet - that most of the Gallic Lugudunum (retained as the most likely by the analysts and as such listed on our map) have corresponded to settlements located near the territorial limits of peoples. Laons was on the border between Carnutes and Eburovices-, Laudun, at the Volcae Arecomici, was located at the very close to the Cavarer , Leudon was located at the dividing line between Senones and Meldi; Loudun, among the Pictavi, had settled not far from the border with the Turones and the Andecavi; Lyons-la-Forêt was on the border of the Veliocasses and Bellovaci; Monlezun,  was close to the territory of the Bigerriones: Monlezun-d'Armagnac is situated at the point of the division between Elusates and Tarbelli; Monlogis, among the Arverni , adjoined at the border of the Ruteni, Moulon was near the place where the Carnutes and the Senones had settlements, etc.

Two Lugudunum’s  may however seem to be the exception. Louin (Deux-Sèvres), is located in the heart of the city of the Pictavi territory. In fact, this civitas grouped together after the conquest, the territories that were hitherto separated (Rome rewarding the Pictons for their alliance gave them lands in the Armorican West), so that Louin had to be established formerly close to the border between Early Pictony and the state of another people located further west. Loudon, in the Sarthe, just east of Le Mans, seems - similarly - to have been located in the heart of the Cenomani Nation. In fact, there has been an ancient internal division of the land the course of the Sarthe River from north to south, before making a division between the two. elbow to the height of Le Mans. This primitive boundary is likely to be highlighted by hydronyms GUIRONDE and GIRONDE that marked it and whose toponymy has kept trace.

The Luminous God

As the deity of high places and strongholds, Lug was also perceived as a luminous god, related to solar radiation. In the Irish text of The Tragic Death of the Children of Tuireann ( Oidhe chloinne Tuireann ), it is said of Lug: "His face had the brightness of the sun". His hair was blonde; his helmet and breastplate shone brightly under the star of the day; his garments were embroidered with gold; his shoes themselves were golden.

Mythological and linguistic clues concur: the name Lug connects to a leukl, luk root found in many other Indo-European languages. European languages, such as the Greek leukos or the Latin lux (it gave birth to many months of in modern languages, such as German Licht, English light or French lumière, luire, lune, lucide, etc.). Lug thus represented for the Celts the "Brilliant", the "Luminous" (the Welsh hero Lleu has the same origin: in Welsh, Lleu means "light"). Places that we have quoted as having taken their name from the Celtic theonym correspond to sites well exposed to light, easily sunlit. Thus, Laudun (Gard) has developed in an amphitheatre on a hill of 122 m overlooking the Tave; Lauzun (Lot-et-Garonne), in the slope of a hill of 100 m; Louin (Deux-Sèvres), on the slope of a height bordering the Thouet. We must also talk about Laon (Aisne), again called Montlaon in medieval texts. The high town, camped on its clear mountain - steep hill over 100 meters – enjoys the light of the immense Champagne plain, from which it stands out strikingly.

We must mention the most famous of all the "Citadelles-de-Lug": Lyon, and its Fourvière hill which, also more than 100 m above the mists of the Saône and the Rhône, raises its rock towards the rising sun. There, one can think, "the Celts had since long accustomed to coming to worship the god that, every morning and almost within their reach, they saw the emergence of the alpine sierra". "Is there a better place for to adore the rising sun that this site where the view to the east is extraordinarily beautiful?, adds Amable Audin. Seneca (in Apocoloquintose, 7, 2, v. 9-10) was already doing tell one of his characters about the sire of Lyon: "I saw, overlooking two rivers, a hill that Phebus at his rising always looks into the sky". Nothing better justified, gifted, than the name of " Luminous Height of the god".

The god of religious centers and sacred assemblies

Several of the locality names from the Lugudunum compound correspond to sites that will remain in a major relationship with the sacred, as if the LUG guardianship had marked them with an divine seal.  The village of LOU1N (Deux -Sèvres), which we saw installed on the slope of a hill, revealed a Gallo-Roman hypogeum, a mausoleum (4th century), and a burial necropolis (5th century)  indications, perhaps, of a prolonged use of the site for religious purposes.

Mont-Laü (Haute-Garonne) has kept the name of the hill next to it from Lugdunum/Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges. In this simple village, archaeologists have revealed a large Gallo-Roman temple, a necropolis (V-VI centuries) and also an important Paleo-Christian basilica (4th century), which makes Saint-Bertrand the oldest Christianity of the Pyrenees. It will acquire very early the title - kept until the Revolution - of the bishopric of Comminges. Forsaking the name of the ancient LUG, it will take the sanctified name of the bishop having noted the importance of the religious capital and undertaken the construction of its large cathedral, which perpetuated the former sacralization of the site.

The destiny of the ancient Gallo-Roman citadel of the Rèmes, Laon, has also remained the same eminently connected with religion. Saint Remi founded a bishopric instead of the ancient Lugdunum as early as the V th - VI th centuries. Kings appropriate the sacred. They made of Laon a royal seat, capital Carolingian between the 8th and 10th centuries. A Gothic cathedral - one of the most important formerly built - will sit majestically on the rock; close to her we'll install the episcopal palace. Throughout the Middle Ages, the city was a religious and intellectual center.

The old Lugdunum of Lyon was and has remained a religious high place. For a long time, Fourvière's Gallic past has been ignored. Historians asserted that no protohistoric occupation had ever existed on this Lyon hill, and that the city dates back to the creation by Proconsul Munatius Plancus of a Roman colony in 43 BC.  Gallic etymology of the name of the town seemed almost incongruous. Recent research has established that the well was occupied in the Latin period, and even that sacred places existed in the heart of the of this hill: large quadrangular enclosures, where banquets took place at ritual character. In Lyon the first Christian church was built in Gaul. The basilica of Fourvière rises today on the site where once they had to pray to the Celtic god. The archbishop of the city still bears the honorary title of "Primate of the Gauls". The light of the pagan Lug has been the light of Christian law.

 It is in Lyon, city of the Gauls, political, administrative and religious center after the Conquest, that Augustus decided to institute an imperial cult and to build a monumental altar dedicated to Rome divinized and to Augustus perceived in his religious power. The sanctuary, installed on the rival height of Fourvière, the hill of the àoix-Roussc, near the amphitheatre, was inaugurated in the year 12 A.D. Tiberius, the successor of Augustus, reads there to revere the Mercurius Augustus, as several re-recorded inscriptions attest, the imperial cult took the succession of the devotion once given to the Celtic deity. It was decided to hold an "Assembly of the Gauls", Concilium Galliarum, near the site of the Gallo-Roman sanctuary; it was to be to bring together each year the delegates of the sixty Gallic cities, thus obliged to recognize the sacred power of Augustus. Skillfully, this solemn feast read placed August 1, which was the month of Augustus' birth, and from which it takes its name. But this date - strange coincidence! - coincided with the one set by the Celts to celebrate each year the Lug festival, which we mentioned: the Lugnasad, "Assembly of Lug", a popular festival well attested in Ireland, which celebrated the royal function, and during which all kinds of meetings were held: feasts, games, races, horses, spirit contests, fairs, and maybe political debates...

The god Lug was considered as god initiator and protector of the assemblies: "Lug, son of Ethliu; it is he who first invented the assembly in the beginning", specifies a version of Ethliu's from the Irish text of the Adventures of Tuirill Biccreo and his sons.  Didn't the Independent Gauls celebrate this feast in the past, especially in Lyon?  And wouldn't the Romans have resumed, by disguising it, the sacred commemoration?

The assimilation, or rather the absorption by the imperial cult of the Gallic feast and the divinity of the indigenous pantheon thus marked the first step in Romanization. 

Other Lugudunum than Lyon may have once played a federating role. One evoked the tradition as a political and intellectual centre attached to Laon. Jean-Marie Desbordes notes about Lion-en-Sullias (suspected to be an ancient "Citadelle-de-Lug") "At a certain time of the year, the druids hold their meetings in a place dedicated, in the land of Ranges, which is said to be at the centre of all Gaul." At the extreme south-eastern end of the territory the Carnutes , this Lion-en-Sullias would have been a federal sanctuary, by its position on the border of several Cities (border with the Bituriges , with the Senones and a time with the Aedui). The same author quotes also the site of Lion-devant-Dun, in the Meuse, "where a beautiful oppidum de la Tène has been recognized", and where "the three former dioceses of Rheims, Trier and Verdun met". (Formerly on the border of the Remi, Treveri and Mediomatricî), at the "crossroads of three regions".  Natural borders: the Argonne, the Jurassic plateau of Lorraine and the alluvial plain of the Meuse.

But this analysis must be applicable to many other former Lugudunum we pointed out that they were all located close to the border of several Gallic peoples; they were once able to play a religious and unifying role, and this was a common practice in the past, under the aegis of the god Lug.

Les Noms D'origine Gauloise, La Gaule Des Dieux ( Jacques Lacroix)