ug. Thereupon
the Fomorians fled to their own region.

The Tuatha De Danann remained masters of Ireland until the coming of the
Milesians, so named from an eponymous Mile, son of Bile. Ith, having
been sent to reconnoitre, was slain, and the Milesians now invaded
Ireland in force. In spite of a mist raised by the Druids, they landed,
and, having met the three princes who slew Ith, demanded instant battle
or surrender of the land. The princes agreed to abide by the decision of
the Milesian poet Amairgen, who bade his friends re-embark and retire
for the distance of nine waves. If they could then effect a landing,
Ireland was theirs. A magic storm was raised, which wrecked many of
their ships, but Amairgen recited verses, fragments, perhaps, of some
old ritual, and overcame the dangers. After their defeat the survivors
of the Tuatha De Danann retired into the hills to become a fairy folk,
and the Milesians (the Goidels or Scots) became ancestors of the Irish.

Throughout the long story of the conquests of Ireland there are many
reduplications, the same incidents being often ascribed to different
personages.[174] Different versions of similar occurrences, based on
older myths and traditions, may already have been in existence, and
ritual practices, dimly remembered, required explanation. In the hands
of the chroniclers, writing history with a purpose and combining their
information with little regard to consistency, all this was reduced to a
more or less connected narrative. At the hands of the prosaic
chroniclers divinity passed from the gods, though traces of it still
linger.

"Ye are gods, and, behold, ye shall die, and the waves be upon you at
last.
In the darkness of time, in the deeps of the years, in the changes of
things,
Ye shall sleep as a slain man sleeps, and the world shall forget you for
kings."

From the annalistic point of view the Fomorians are sea demons or
pirates, their name being derived from _muir_, "sea," while they are
descended along with other monstrous beings from them. Professor
Rh[^y]s, while connecting the name with Welsh _foawr_, "giant" (Gaelic
_famhair_), derives the name from _fo_, "under," and _muir_, and regards
them as submarine beings.[175] Dr. MacBain connected them with the
fierce powers of the western sea personified, like the _Muireartach_, a
kind of sea hag, of a Fionn ballad.[176] But this association of the
Fomorians with the ocean may be the result