In Irish myths and folklore, the first 'recorded' inhabitant people are the Fomorians. Earliest medieval textual descriptions show ambivalence towards primary narratives that contend they are gigantic and monstrous, as secondary, perhaps later narratives describe them as a dark but beautiful people, different from but commensurate with the Tuath De Danaan who fought with them and supplanted them. Etymological theories of the origins of "Fomor" conjecture chaotic, monstrous inhabitants from deep underground or deep beneath the sea. Folkloric motifs suggest parallels with conflicts between a primal race of monsters and the beautiful god race that defeat them: there are possible similarities war between the Titans and Zeus' divine cohort and wars between Jotun and Aesir. Seemingly, at some point, the cultural references to Formorian antagonists incorporate references to regional orgins. Irish myths have strong associative claims that pre-immigration, the Fomors and the Tuath De came north over the ocean from Spain---though folklorist partisans also support claims that the archaic sea-goers were North-African or Phoenician, and insofar as the ancient accounts relate to 8th-10th century coastal invasions, the Fomorians are understood to be Scandinavian vikings, Belgians ("Firbolg" are a Fomorian subgroup) and invaders from southern England. All this is preface to particularizing the 'monstrous' physiology of the legendary Fomorians. Their most fearsome leader is the chieftain Balor of the Evil Eye, whose arcane eye slew anyone he gazed on, a power compared to the fatal eyesight attributed to the Welsh Maginogion's Ysbaddaden, the wicked giant father of Olwen. Victorianist and enthusiast of Victorian speculative myth-historiography, C.A. Asbrey, supports *our* contemporary argument that there was neither a singular Celtic culture nor people but that, rather, multiple waves of tribes emigrated from southern to northern Europe. And the initial flourishing of a synthetic Celtic culture occurred in the region of the Iberian Peninsula, so, she suggests, the folkloric origins of diminuitive kobold-like 'brownies' might echo a vestigial memory of dark-complected early settlers from Spain and the western Mediterranean.
Clearly, none of these details are offered to 'clarify' who the Zahuri might have been. However, I can imagine that, for Coleridge, 19th-century theories of Europe's ancient racial history combined with awareness of English, Irish, and Welsh folktales might have 'resonated' with Pierre Bayle's entry on the Zahuris. ---I found Wiki's entries on "Fomorians" and "Balor" well-documented and plausible. These accounts didn't mention the commonplace of Irish people's Spanish origins. Asbrey is one of many supporters of the connection. < https://caasbrey.com/myth-and-reality/ >
Oh woe to non-fully-diligent Kathleen Koburn, say I as a Spaniard proud of our Zahuris.
In Irish myths and folklore, the first 'recorded' inhabitant people are the Fomorians. Earliest medieval textual descriptions show ambivalence towards primary narratives that contend they are gigantic and monstrous, as secondary, perhaps later narratives describe them as a dark but beautiful people, different from but commensurate with the Tuath De Danaan who fought with them and supplanted them. Etymological theories of the origins of "Fomor" conjecture chaotic, monstrous inhabitants from deep underground or deep beneath the sea. Folkloric motifs suggest parallels with conflicts between a primal race of monsters and the beautiful god race that defeat them: there are possible similarities war between the Titans and Zeus' divine cohort and wars between Jotun and Aesir. Seemingly, at some point, the cultural references to Formorian antagonists incorporate references to regional orgins. Irish myths have strong associative claims that pre-immigration, the Fomors and the Tuath De came north over the ocean from Spain---though folklorist partisans also support claims that the archaic sea-goers were North-African or Phoenician, and insofar as the ancient accounts relate to 8th-10th century coastal invasions, the Fomorians are understood to be Scandinavian vikings, Belgians ("Firbolg" are a Fomorian subgroup) and invaders from southern England. All this is preface to particularizing the 'monstrous' physiology of the legendary Fomorians. Their most fearsome leader is the chieftain Balor of the Evil Eye, whose arcane eye slew anyone he gazed on, a power compared to the fatal eyesight attributed to the Welsh Maginogion's Ysbaddaden, the wicked giant father of Olwen. Victorianist and enthusiast of Victorian speculative myth-historiography, C.A. Asbrey, supports *our* contemporary argument that there was neither a singular Celtic culture nor people but that, rather, multiple waves of tribes emigrated from southern to northern Europe. And the initial flourishing of a synthetic Celtic culture occurred in the region of the Iberian Peninsula, so, she suggests, the folkloric origins of diminuitive kobold-like 'brownies' might echo a vestigial memory of dark-complected early settlers from Spain and the western Mediterranean.
Clearly, none of these details are offered to 'clarify' who the Zahuri might have been. However, I can imagine that, for Coleridge, 19th-century theories of Europe's ancient racial history combined with awareness of English, Irish, and Welsh folktales might have 'resonated' with Pierre Bayle's entry on the Zahuris. ---I found Wiki's entries on "Fomorians" and "Balor" well-documented and plausible. These accounts didn't mention the commonplace of Irish people's Spanish origins. Asbrey is one of many supporters of the connection. < https://caasbrey.com/myth-and-reality/ >