ИСТИНА

The early Irish tale of a male supernatural character, Codal Corrcíchech (‘Round-breasted’), who nourished Ériu, is told in the Dindshenchas of Benn Codail, a mountain/hill named after the protagonist. We are going to revisit the Edinburgh and the Rennes prose versions with some variant readings from the Book of Ballymote and the Book of Lecan. Benn Codail cannot be accurately located but it seems to be related to Síd Codail in co. Kildare mentioned in a later 13th century story where a giant was killed in that fairy hill. Codal as a character from the áes síde could have been fabricated in order to fit into the etymological and etiological story of a particular place name associated with codal ‘skin, hide’. However, the whole mythologem involving a male supernatural character feeding the eponymous goddess of Ireland deserves closer attention. It can be suggested that here we are dealing (albeit indirectly) with some traces of a cosmogonic myth where a child-goddess is fed with the sacrificial food made from the contents of "codal".