# Tuatha Dé {% hint style="success" %} #### Like what your seeing? Consider supporting us as a [GitHub Sponsor](/old-kb/where-to-buy/become-a-sponsor.md) and get instant access to all our Unity assets, exclusive tools and assets, escalated support and issue tracking and our gratitude.\ \ These articles are made possible by our [GitHub Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/heathen-engineering) ... become a sponsor today! {% endhint %} Tuatha Dé Danann and Tuatha Dé are common enough terms in a lot of Irish related folklore. Tuatha Dé\ This term has been used by Irish monks to refer to Israelites meant to translate as "People of God" \ \ Tuatha Dé Danann\ This term appears in a few pseudo-historical works and translates as "Peoples of the goddess Danann". The oldest references to this term appear to be from 1,100 CE bringing the relevance of the term in question with regards to the indigenous Irish folklore. Many figures said to be members of the Tuatha Dé Danann are represented in multiple sources and likely have some roots in the underlying folklore though the term its self seem to be a more modern structure and many of the members of the Tuatha Dé Danann are clearly pseudo-historical additions for political means. As to Danann this name is debated and is only seen in later medieval works suggesting it may be a complete fabrication of the time. Alternatively this may be related to a figure "Anu" however this figure is also confused. Part of the problem comes from medieval Christian monks who assume similar sound equates to etymological link and of course the active attempt to obscure the underlying non-Christian roots of this folklore. No greater harm was ever done to a culture than to be Christianised it would seem. ### Translation **Tuath** (singular) or **Tuatha** (plural) means "tribe, folk, people" **Dé** (genitive) of **Día** and generally means a supernatural or spiritual being or object such as a god, gods, goddess or similar You will see Tuatha Dé translated as "Tribes of gods" suggesting more than 1 group of peoples. Note I say peoples here, for a Christian centric view "god" or "gods" has a very different meaning in context to "Dé" or "Díe" see the article on [Gods and Goddesses](/old-kb/codex/irish/research/disambiguation/gods-and-goddesses.md) for more information. In short we feel a more literal translation might be "the tribes of venerable peoples" or simply "ancestors" in the since of honour and veneration we see in other tribal cultures for those who came before. An interesting note would be to look at eastern cultural traditions in particular Japan and its shrines and concepts of spirts. Eastern cultures didn't have the mass erasure of the older tribal traditions until much later and never in quite as complete a way. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://kb.heathen.group/old-kb/codex/irish/research/disambiguation/tuatha-de.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.