h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In Irish prehistory/mythology there is a story of a people called the "Fir Bollig".
They are described as being the inhabitants of Ireland before the first people came to Ireland, and of being heavy set with fat stomachs. The legend has it that they retreated underground when the people came and were not seen nor heard of again.
Does it sound possible that this story might be an ancient recollection of Homo Sapiens replacing the Neanderthal in Ireland? It is reckonned that the last Neanderthal died out some 10,000 years ago - so could the oral tradition have preserved mention of their fate until this day?

I think it is more likely that the story of the Fir Bolg is a tale made up by the Celtic invaders as they became more numerous and the indigenous pre-Celtic inhabitants started to die out. The fir bolg were small and fat. The tales of the Tuatha De Danaan, the tall noble fairy-like people, were probably the tales told by the indigineous people about the tall Celtic invaders. The two sets of legends got mixed up and eventually just became tales told by the fire at night to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

I thought it sounded pretty far-fetched...but it is sometimes difficult to tell if my leg is being pulled or not.

I read a comic about early man, how they ran into neandertals every now and then. At one point a cro-magnon sees a neandertal in the forests and run away screaming "Troll!" Sounds to me more likely than fairies.

What about someone like Pedro the Mummy, that seems to me that might have something to do with mythology. And aliens and mythology also has some link.

How come this very interesting thread has nothing more on it?????

Have you anything to add yourself?

not in particular, but I'm still interested!

Well, apparently Neanderthals had higher technology than hom. sap.

The reason Neanderthals died out is that they were physically adampted to the cold, and could not cope with (1) climate change and (2) population pressures as we moved north.

We know that they were adapted to the cold because there have not been any Neanderthal remains found south of a certain line.

Apparently they had red hair.

a faerie called Ben

Any evidence of higher technology? The so-called Neanderthal bone flute dating from 90,000 years ago is more likely just an animal bone which has been chewed by a predator. The "carefully positioned finger holes" are probably just tooth marks.

I dunno - this bloke told me it at work the other day...

a neanderthal called Ben

I believe they were fairly equal in technology. But the climate did turn in favour of Sapiens.

I wonder what would happen if we found the yeti was a bunch of surviving neandertals.

I like that, Gullibility - brief and to the point. NZ has obviously left you speechless (or are you just as gobsmacked as we are that the NZ cricketers have beaten the Ozzies?).

But on the subject of Neanderthals and the Faerie Folk, I'm a great fan of the Bardic Memory theory in which prehistoric events is recorded between the lines of myth and legend. I have no idea as to the veracity of the theory but it has a certain elegance.

I don't know about Neanderthals and the Fir Bolg - any pre-Celtic inhabitants of Ireland - the Megalithic peoples for instance - would fit the bill.

As I understand it there were five waves of mythic peoples migrating to Ireland, the Fir Bolg being the third, followed by the Tuatha de Danaan and the Milesians. Given the way waves of different cultures washed across prehistoric and ancient Europe, the idea that their presence and passing could be enshrined or encoded in folk tales is very appealing.

The theory makes interesting rereading of Scandinavian mythology - particularly the Norse Gods and the Giant races.

Also re: Neanderthal technology, some scientists are claiming they knew how to make glue:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1766000/1766683.stm

A fingerprint and a blob of burnt resin, eh? Well, if scientists can make these leap of faith conjectures, I guess we can too.

Just read the link

Have you ever had a fresh pine shed/shelf etc. it weeps like anything, especially when it warms up. it only takes brushing againt it to realise it's sticky as hell. I dont think this would be any great intellectual leap. if you figure out fire is hot, stone tools are sharp, then you can certainly figure out resin is sticky.

It's bit of a wierd tone for the new item to be written in. Obvioulsy a journalist not an acedemic,

FABT

Ummm, you obviously don't know what I do for a living, FABT...

(Ok, I don't make a living from it but it keeps me off the streets)

I can make a guess from your last comment!

What I was referring to, but didnt explain very well cos I'm at work and doiung this on the sly are all those articles you get in the paper that have a huge headline but when you read them actually mean nothing and would have been failed for sensationalism at my university if I;d handed in something so pointless.

no offence meant to journalists in general, (well not for this point anyway) but there is some wisdom in the old saying about 'write what you know'

FABT

I thought the Irish tales of fairies under the hills and stuff were very old. Certainly one school of thought (as seen by me on the Discovery Channel, so it must be true ) is that the Celts turned up in Ireland, saw things like Newgrange and the like and became convinced that gods or something had been there before. Neanderthal is probably pushing it, but the tales of the Fir Bolg are, I believe discussing the stone age builders of all those ancient sites.

This could be fascinating.

I'd say the fairies were aliens. They look more like that than aliens to me. Normal fairies anyway, I don't know that much about the Irish variety.

I personally don't know the answer but I love this kind of theorising (even if it does eventually lead nowhere).

It's a bit like theory that global flood stories such as that of Noah and the Ark may be a race memory for the formation around 10,000 years ago of the sudden creation of the Meditteranean as the Atlantic ocean flooded over the straights of Gibraltar.

*wonders if he'll ever learn to check his grammar before posting*