Does the Horned God Cernunnos Have an Irish Equivalent?

In which I attempt to pronounce Cernunnos correctly.

Uncover characters from Irish mythology who may—or may not—have connections to Celtic mythology’s most recognizable deity, the horned god Cernunnos. (And maybe have a wee bit of fun along the way)

Note: you can find a text version of this essay with links to references and resources over on IrishMyths.com: https://irishmyths.com/2024/05/21/cernunnos/

00:00 Intro

02:52 The Uindos / Fionn mac Cumhaill / Cernunnos Connection

06:25 The Derg Corra / Cernunnos Connection

09:13 The Conall Cernach / Cernunnos Connection

11:08 The Dagda / Cernunnos Connection

14:08 The Saint Ciarán / Cernunnos Connection

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konos even if you’ve never heard that name before I can guarantee you recognize the Celtic deity to whom it belongs thanks in large part to his absorption into modern neopagan religious practices krunos whose name means the horned one has become a mascot of sorts for Celtic mythology but to clarify and this is an important clarification krunos is not an Irish God he’s Gish or Gallow Roman by which I mean cunos was originally woried in ancient GA by Celtic speaking peoples as early as the 5th Century BCE if not earlier and that worship continued well after the Roman conquest of Gaul in the 1 Century BCE indeed depictions of krunos from the Roman era often find him grouped together with Greco Roman deities most notably on the pillar of The Boatman where he appears alongside or rather on top of Jupiter Vulcan Mars and Mercury amongst other figures the pillar which was erected during the first century SE e in what is now Paris France also happens to provide the only Undisputed instance of the name cunos from ancient times thus it has been used as a key of sorts for identifying other possible depictions of the horned God including this one from Ron France this one from the Romano British settlement of corinium modern day siren sester and perhaps most famously this one from The guden strup Cauldron which was discovered in Denmark now at this point I could go into excruciating detail about the differences between Celtic mythology and Irish mythology but I already did that in an earlier video and you better believe I used the depiction of cunos from The guden strub Cauldron to represent the Celtic side of the equation or non-e equation as it were because the one thing you really need to understand for the purposes of this video is that Gish deities and Irish deities belong to two distinct pantheons true both fall under the Celtic umbrella as both pantheons origin ated with Celtic speaking peoples the Galls and The gales respectively and also true there appear to be some cognates or similar deities Within These pantheons hinting at a shared ALB a distant origin which makes sense given the shared linguistic origin Proto Celtic but at the end of the day they’re different and despite what you may have read on Reddit we’ll get into it there is no Irish version of cunos the Irish Pantheon simply does not have a horned God or does it that’s what we’re going to investigate but first for all you Celtic mythology super fans out there might I humbly recommend the short story collection neon Druid in anthology of urban Celtic fantasy and in particular the story cave conom by Ed aarn which offers a modern take on a certain horned someone I’ve put the link in the description below if you want to check it out now on with the show there’s an odd little passage floating around Reddit and Facebook and other corners of the internet that claims there are quote old Irish stories that describe krunos under the name of endos and as the son of the high king of Ireland named Lou end quote a few things to unpack here first and foremost there is no Irish God or character of any kind bearing the name wos in any of the medieval Irish texts in which the Irish myths were first recorded so there’s that second and admittedly this one’s more of a quibble but referring to Lou as a high king of Ireland is a bit reductionist yes in the myths he is King for a time but Lou is also a God the god of many talents what’s more he’s the savior of the good Irish Gods if you will the two aanan leading them into battle against his grandfather baller of the evil eye and the Monstrous fomorians speaking of L’s family tree he does have a son to actually but neither are named endos instead Lou’s sons are iic of the horses and the famed Irish hero Ken the closest thing I could find to an authoritative source for the endos kinu theory is the book The Truth About Druids in which author Teague mccrossen defines endos as quote an ancient Celtic God Son of noens in a group of great epic tales and romances called the phenian cycle endos is also called cunos in Greek most famous Incarnation is as Finn mul end quote so in this version of the theory endos has a different dad the British Celtic God noens who is likely cognate with the Irish God NADA but this this inconsistency in parentage doesn’t bother me so much as the assertion that krunos is the Greek name of this hypothetical deity endos when we know with a high degree of certainty that konos is a latinization of the Gish konos which in turn is derived from the root word caran meaning horn or antler attempting to connect cunos to the Irish hero Finn makul does make at least some sense as Finn as described in the myths is an accomplished Hunter this has led some Scholars to identify Finn as a so-called leader of the wild Hunt the wild Hunt being a folklore Motif that occurs across European cultures krunos meanwhile given that he is often depicted alongside Stags and ram-headed serpents is sometimes identified as the Lord of wild things or the lord of the animals but while it’s easy to conflate the two the leader of the wild Hunt and the lord of the Wild Things represent two different and in some ways opposite motifs the former sees a mythical figure leading a Hunting Party in a violent Chase while the latter depicts a mythical figure in a zen-like pose taming or protecting wild animals what these motifs most definitely have in common is that they were both applied retroactively to the figures in question and ultimately I think that’s the best explanation for where this unattested OS figure comes from it’s a modern neopagan creation that attempts to reconcile or combine these two mythical forces that being said Finn Co and his Warrior band The fiana are in the myths associated with a horn the famed Dort fan the hunting horde of the fiana which depending on the context can be used either to gather Irish Warriors to the battlefield or to Rouse Finn from his eternal Slumber so while the Irish Finn doesn’t have horns on his head like the Gish cunos an argument can be made that he is nonetheless a horned hero staying within the phenian cycle of Irish mythology there is another character who is arguably a much better fit for the role of coruno counterpart Dar Kora son of O DEA this relatively obscure character appears in just one relatively obscure story Finn and the Man in the tree a story that kicks off with your classic Celtic love triangle the hero Finn mul desires a beautiful Maiden but the beautiful Maiden desires one of Finn’s servants DK Kora not wanting to upset Finn darg refuses the maiden’s advances but then the maiden gets upset and implores Finn to kill him so dur goes into Exile in the woods and after the agreed upon three-day truce Finn comes after him here’s what happens next quote one day as Finn was in the wood seeking him he saw a man in the top of a tree a black bird on his right shoulder and in his left hand a white vessel of bronze filled with water in which was a skittish trout and a stag at the foot of the tree and this was the practice of the man cracking nuts and he would give half the kernel of a nut to to the black bird that was on his right shoulder while he would himself eat the other half and he would take an apple out of the bronze vessel that was in his left hand divide it in two throw one half to the Stag that was at the foot of the tree and then eat the other half himself and on it he would drink a sip of water in the bronze vessel that was in his hand so that he and the trout and the Stag and the Blackbird drank together end quote now that imagery definitely gives off karuno Vibes especially when you consider the Gish God is sometimes depicted with a cornucopia or Horn of Plenty so while our man in the tree Dar Kora doesn’t have horns on his head he does have that bronze vessel which provides sustenance not only for himself but for his furry feathered and scale covered friends as well then there’s his name darug can be translated as red and core as point or Peak again not quite a horn but the word is perhaps suggestive of one granted core can also mean Heron or crane so there’s really nothing conclusive here and while the lord of the Wild Things Motif Vibes certainly seem strong there are other explanations for this man in the tree imagery for example there’s the wild man of the woods Motif which has been applied to characters including the Irish Sweeney guilt mad Sweeney the Scottish leukin the Welsh miren Wilt and later Merlin of aruan Legend Fame FYI you can learn more about Celtic wildmen over on irish.car William s’s theory that Dar Kora effectively creates or becomes a world tree quote complete with various Insignia of the tripartite cosmos as conceived in early Irish thought end quote moving backward chronologically to an earlier cycle of Irish mythology the ster cycle we find another Contender for the Irish krunos Crown Connell KCK the famed Red Branch Warrior and Foster brother of guh hullen and right off the bat hling stick we have a possible eological connection to cunos because while kerak is often interpreted as of the victories or triumphant the presence of the root Karen has led some Scholars to believe there is something horny about his name wait that’s not what I however considering that Connell is never described as having horns in the myths it’s possible that KCK is a reference to the hero’s tough horn-like skin there’s also the following explanation courtesy of the scholar j a mullik quote the name krunos signifies the horned one from keru horn a word found in connell’s epitet kernek but this was not given him because he was horned but because of the angular shape of his head the angle Kar being the result of a blow end quote epitet aside there’s a specific passage in the tonbo freek CER of freek that hints at a possible Connell kinus connection the passage finds Connell in the Alps assisting the titular freek in the rescue of his wife three sons and cattle alas they come across a dune or fort in which Frey’s family is being held guarding that Fort a vicious serpent an epic showdown seems imminent the snake darts forward and proceeds to wrap itself around connell’s waist Connell wears the snake like a belt as he and freak take the fort when the rescue and requisite plundering are complete Connell removes his snake belt and lets the creature Slither away unharmed in the scheme of things this is a small detail but given that Sur are super common in depictions of caros and are sometimes even shown coiled around the God’s waist it’s a detail worthy of our consideration finally let us turn our attention to perhaps the strongest Contender for an Irish konos equivalent the Daga the so-called father of the Irish Gods as the wielder of a massive club or staff the lormore and possessor of a cauldron the Kor anic from which it is said no company ever departs unsatisfied the dagda has traditionally been linked to the Gish succulus a God who is regularly depicted with a long handled Mallet in one hand and in allaha a jar or barrel for cooking and storing food in the other but in the Saga text the kaura the Second Battle of mura which is part of the earliest cycle of Irish mythology the mythological cycle a curious thing happens when the daughter of the fian king indc asks the dagda for his name he replies with a string of names the very first of which is fear B then the horned man I mean case closed right here we have actual textual evidence of an Irish god with horns only it’s not that simple because while fear means man in Old Irish and Ben can mean the Horn of an animal the latter can also mean Peak or Pinnacle and when we consider the context of the scene it becomes clear that the dagda regardless of whether he’s referring to himself as the horns man or the peaked man or the man of Pinnacles is not being literal he’s being facius horned in this case means horny or rather the dagda is using the term as a euphemism for a state of male arousal to quote from the text just a few lines before he gives the first of his many names quote as he went along he saw a girl in front of him a good-looking young woman with an excellent figure her hair and beautiful Tresses the dagda desired her but he was impotent on account of his belly end quote and now listen to what the young woman replies after the dagda gives the name fear Bene that name is too much exclamation mark end quot joke made joke understood well played the dagda our conclusion thus must be that the dagda is not a horned God in the sense that krunos is a horned God as for other potential similarities between the two Celtic deities some have suggested that both the dagda and cunos are representations of what folklorist and Anthropologist James George Fraser refers to as the Divine King a being who embodies the Essences of both winter and summer death and life it’s essentially the Holly king and the oak King merged into one entity I explore this concept in more detail in my video the case for Celtic Santa Claus where I also happen to explain how the dagda got his aforementioned big belly that prevents him from uh performing but once again I must provide the huge caveat that the oak king/ Holly King interpretations of the dagda and konos are modern they have been applied retroactively and are not attested to directly in any actual texts or Engravings the bottom line Irish mythology does not have its own version of cunos Irish hagiography however is another matter as some scholars believe stories about St Kieran a saint known for communing with wild animals were based at least in part on keranos and what or should I say who do we find carved into the North Cross at Clon mcno the Irish Monastery founded by St Kieran well I’ll let you be the judge if you enjoyed this video please like and comment and basically just tap all of the little buttons and by the end of it make sure you are subscribed to the Irish myths channel that really really helps and if you want to learn more about gods and heroes and monsters from Irish mythology you’ve come to the right place I’ve got playlists on all of those topics which you can find linked below as always my name is iie never day editor of the short story collection neon Druid and creator of Irish smiths.com thanks for coming up